Gay-rights vote doesn't address `bathroom issue'
Friday, October 30, 2009
Kalamazoo
BY KATHY JESSUP
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-36/125691422537280.xml&coll=7 (http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-36/125691422537280.xml&coll=7)
KALAMAZOO -- When you cut away equality arguments and lay aside the Bible, some Kalamazoo voters say it is the ``bathroom issue'' that will influence their Nov. 3 vote on Kalamazoo's anti-discrimination ordinance.
Pictures of men lurking outside female restrooms appear on campaign fliers from the opposition group Citizens Voting NO to Special Rights Discrimination, which claims the measure would allow individuals born one sex to dress as the other to gain improper access to a restroom.
Supporters of the ordinance call that a ``red herring'' and a ``scare tactic.'' They say there are no criminal reports of transgender individuals committing bathroom crimes. But they say people in sexual transition are threatened when they are forced to use their biological, rather than gender-identity, restroom.