Transmissions: Clearing things up
Published 02/09/2012
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=67415Many years ago, a friend of mine came to me, frustrated. She could not grasp why we needed to spell out who was included in various non-discrimination bills. Why did we need to spell out race, gender, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity and expression, and so on? Why not simply say that no one could discriminate against another person? Frankly, I might take it a step further: we should not even need to point out that one should not discriminate: that should be a given in a humane society.
Sadly, it seems that people always look for a way around it, some way to legally discriminate, some loophole that allows them to continue to do what they do. Sometimes, too, these things crop up when you least expect it. Perhaps while trying to keep people safe, you might accidently make discrimination the law of the land. For example, last July, a rule took affect in Canada barring transgender people from air travel.
