A new attack ad against transgender women is being aired in Houston, but in true-to-deplorable-form, it doesn’t exactly go after trans women. That would be too honest.
Instead, the 30-second radio spot opts for fear rhetoric and lies. As if you needed to ask, the group running the ad is headed by an antigay Republican named Jared Woodfill, a 47-year old attorney and former Chairman of the Republican Party of Harris County, Texas. How original.
He and his group, the ‘Campaign For Houston,’ are trying to get ‘no’ votes for the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO), which voters will vote on in November.
The message is essentially, “Dirty, perverted men are coming to infiltrate Houston’s female bathrooms, showers and locker rooms! Mother to mother, sister to sister, Fox News viewer to Fox News viewer — we CANNOT allow this to happen.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
That’s a slight exaggeration, but not by much.
“No men in women’s bathrooms,” the ad actually begins. “This ordinance will allow men to freely go into women’s bathrooms, locker rooms and showers. That is filthy, that is disgusting, and that is unsafe,” the woman says. She also claims to represent “all moms, sisters, and daughters.”
“Nothing in the equal rights ordinance changes the fact that it is – and always will be – illegal to enter a restroom to harm or harass other people,” Houston Unites told the Houston Chronicle. “And the ad leaves out the fact that the law protects tens of thousands of Houstonians from job discrimination based their race, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability.”
Listen to the filthy, disgusting ad below:
h/t: NCRM
Sukhrajah
Ok, how do we counter this? Marching in the streets might not be do-able (as the supporters might be all over the country). Can we organize (or is there currently) an online petition?
Tobi
Um, do they have urinals in the ladies?!
tricky ricky
i say let the transsexuals fix this mess by themselves. they created it. it has nothing to do with gay rights. they tacked themselves on to the gay rights movement to suit their own ends and have tried to take credit for all the gay advances that were fought by and won by gays.
tricky ricky
@tricky ricky: @Tobi: if you can stand to pee you ain’t no lady
McShane
If you gotta go, you gotta go.
“I do not want to use the the women’s restroom – the conservatives want to force me to. Is this so hard to understand? I was born female. I am now legally male. But because I was born female they want me in the women’s restroom.” – Michael Hughes
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/trans-man-takes-on-bill-with-bathroom-selfies-414935107983
Giancarlo85
I’m just waiting for the transphobic nuts on here to agree with these Texas republicans… just waiting…
Maria
@tricky ricky: I think you should do a little research before making factual statements, ensuring your facts are correct is a must.
1. There is evidence actual factual evidence of trans people at the forefront of marches for equality and other events of equality as far back as the stonewall riots and further a simple google search can give you plenty of information on that.
2. I know I did not read what I know I just read, are you really stating that trans people created trans prejudice? REALLY? What did we all wake up one morning and meet up and say “Hay you know what… Our life really is not hard enough yet… you know what we can do to add to the problems of constant rape, abuse (verbal and physical), and prejudice in almost every walk of life from the impossibility of getting a job to the impossibility of medical treatment… No what we really need now to be the cherry on the cake is to create a law that makes it illegal for us to use a public rest room… That will be right up our ally” Get real, we did not create this problem, we have been fighting this battle as long as gays with less rights. If you are part of the gay community I feel sorry for you because you obviously learnt nothing from being discriminated against or you would not have said anything like that, I am just glad the entire gay community douse not agree and it is a small collective that think your way.
Maria
@tricky ricky: By that logic there are no lady’s as physically speaking every human on this planet is able to pee standing, that is not a male exclusive thing
Maria
@Tobi: Ummm why are you asking if there are urinals in the ladies?
Rich Penway
it’s only filthy and disgusting if they pee all over the seat.
Kevin J Desmond
The reason why reougs find it disgusting is because even a transgender woman wont sleep with a bigoted repuglican asswipe.
David Harlem
I did a stint as a janitor and there is nothing more disgusting that the “ladies” room and this Trans Woman does not leave her tampons on the floor of the restroom. By the way, women also pee on the seat because they refuse to sit and have worse aim that we men!
Tobi
@Maria: Umm, because what are you going to see if there are no urinals? A “woman” going into a cubicle, or applying her dipstick *oops* lipstick in front of a mirror? Faux. Outrage. Oh, and no, trans.whatever weren’t in the forefront. I know. I was there. You need a reality check. Try reading Julia Grant’s biography, “Just Julia”. A true pioneering transexual, who never feels the need to hijack gay liberation because she was truly part of it. Unlike the Balrog that is Caitlyn Jenner.
Chris
One issue is privacy. That’s easy to solve: just build toilets like they have in Europe that are self enclosed and whose doors go from floor to ceiling.
The second issue is cleanliness. Almost every single cleaning person I’ve ever spoken to complains about how much dirtier women’s bathrooms are as compared to men’s. So maybe we need to get people to clean their bathrooms more frequently.
Finally, we may want to consider going the route of uni-sex bathrooms that are used by all genders because (a) after the door closes, no one knows and (b) the thing is kept relatively clean.
And for those of you with children: we can get family bathrooms.
As regards people making politics about others’ bathroom-going needs, we need to get past this prudishness and start to behave like adults.
Maria
@Tobi: I do not quite understand what you are trying to say here, I don’t know about other women but when I go into the restroom I see women going into cubicles both trans and cis und using it as a rest room, as for you were there if you were you must have been sight impaired!
Tobi
@Maria: Exactly, you don’t “see” anything, do you? I’ve partied, drank, played and danced with Julia Grant, April Ashley and Caroline Cossey, to name but a few of the transexuals I’ve known, admired and respected. You haven’t earned the right to slur CIS at anyone.
Lvng1Tor
Why do straight cis people spend so much time checking out who has what equipment in their pants while in the john? Always accusing gays of being pervs but they seem obsessed with gay porn, pedophilia, beastiality and checking out peoples junk in bathrooms.
VampDC
I may be gay but I actually don’t believe transgendered people should be allowed to use the restroom they identify with.
1. Bathrooms are to comply with you biology. If you do not have a penis – a urinal is useless to you. If you do not get your period – feminine waste products trash bins in stalls are useless to you.
2. Everyones agreeing to ONE thing. The sign says Men or Women – it doent say anything else. Its referring to your biology. It’s disrespectful to everyone else who is agreeing to the one rule -to not care and say it doesn’t apply to me.
Misty Bolling
Who cares what you think
Jacob23
This has nothing to do with gay people. Personally, I don’t care if trans people use the men’s or the women’s bathroom, but what I do find outrageous is that every goal and aspiration of the gay rights movement is held hostage to these bizarre issues which have nothing to do with sexual orientation.
“LGBT” is a sham created to co-opt our movement and put us at the service of a group of people who are not defined by sexual orientation and who are mostly straight. It isn’t enough that we support these mostly straight people. It isn’t enough that we spend our limited resources on their issues, getting nothing in return. No, we are forced give a higher priority to their issues than our own. Our groups, founded, funded and run by LGBs are now required to actively oppose gay rights laws if those laws don’t include transgender bathroom provisions. And now in Houston, we stand a good chance of losing everything because the focus is on biological males who will demand entry into women’s bathrooms solely on the basis of their claim to “feel” like a woman.
LGBT is the greatest hijacking of a movement in modern history and it’s time for us to reclaim our identity and our movement.
Louis
I am so disgusted by the unbelievably EQUALLY DISGUSTING transphobic comments being spewed here what is wrong with you guys?
Is this how you show support for your transgender brothers and sisters within this community by doing exactly what these people do to them ?
Mocking them bullying them discriminating against them etc….
Smh god some people I swear.
What happened to the so called compassion understanding and tolerance we are supposed to show and have for one another within this community?
Ridiculous.
Louis
@VampDC:
That is why they have unisex restrooms and quite frankly they shouldn’t have to have separate restrooms to begin with people should be more open minded educate themselves and be more understanding period.
Captain Obvious
Does anyway even care what bathroom they go in? As long as there’s a toilet or urinal for me to do my business I couldn’t care less what the sign said on the door.
Why don’t they just make them unisex? How is this even a big deal? You’re only there to crap or piss and leave. Jesus.
jwtraveler
@Giancarlo85: No need to wait. tricky ricky beat you to the punch.
jwtraveler
@tricky ricky: That’s the spirit. Why should straight people care about gay rights? It has nothing to do with them. Let us work it out for ourselves. We don’t need straight people at Pride Parades or gay rights marches or protecting us against gay-bashing and police brutality or voting for gay candidates or writing letters to their elected officials or passing gay rights laws in legislatures or arguing for us in court. It’s our fight. Let us deal with it. Why should they care?
If you’ve never heard the word “solidarity”, look it up in the dictionary. And while you’re there, look up “justice” too.
jwtraveler
As a man I have never been in a women’s restroom, except by accident. But I’m fascinated to hear what Republicans think goes on in there. Never in my wildest imagination could I have conjured up such thoughts.
If they’re concerned about the safety of their wives, sisters and daughters, they should look in their own homes. That’s where the vast majority of abuse happens.
Lvng1Tor
@VampDC: WOW…WTF??? Not even worth the argument.