TRANSGENDER SMEAR TACTICS
by Amy L. Stone
posted August 17 2012 at 10:13 am
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/08/17/transgender-smear-tactics/ (http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/08/17/transgender-smear-tactics/)
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.thesocietypages.org%2Fsocimages%2Ffiles%2F2012%2F08%2Fsmear-tactics-500x284.jpg&hash=0dd796460725afaa99a20bbe32bad3def1f33ab0)
I analyze the long history of transgender smear tactics used by the Religious Right, a large social movement that opposes LGBT rights. One area where this occurs is the production of campaign ads addressing attempts to protect transgender individuals from discrimination. The ads almost always focus on either children or bathrooms.
Back in April, voters in Anchorage, Alaska, rejected Proposition 5, which would have created a law protecting residents from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Such laws are primarily to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) residents. Transgender inclusion in the potential law was the focus of two commercials by the organization Protect Your Rights.
In both of these political ads, figures of large, hairy male-bodied individuals in dresses, described as "transvestites", represented transgender inclusion. They present transgender individuals as grotesque and threatening. At the heart of these ads and other transgender smear tactics is anxiety about bodies in gender-segregated spaces that are typically occupied by women.
Steve's Gym (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8yoAaVgJVo#)
DaycareHD.mp4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxqYqY7vwt4#)
I think USA needs to remember that it is the land of the free and that must mean business owners are free to choose the most appropriate staff?
I do think Prop 5 needs amending a little to allow transitioned TS to live as women but that is a job for the Government?
If the second advert had appeared on UK televisions I would personally have called the Ad Standard Board and complained to have been banned.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (April 4, 2012) — Proposition 5, the latest effort in Anchorage to extend equal-rights protections to people on grounds of sexual orientation and transgendered identity, was failing at the polls Tuesday night by roughly 58 percent to 41 percent, with about 97 percent of precincts reporting.
http://articles.ktuu.com/2012-04-04/proposition_31290029 (http://articles.ktuu.com/2012-04-04/proposition_31290029)
If the people of Alaska don't want protection from discrimination, then maybe some of the backers of the Bill should push for equality by having all anti-discrimination legislation repealed.
Especially for religious belief. Isn't Alaska the land of the rugged individual?
If Anchorage is a tolerant city, why would they need a proposition to protect LGBT residents? Because they are not a tolerant city!