A Lesson From Our Howard County Neighbors

On Monday night I attended the Howard County Council meeting in Ellicott City.  Among other items on the agenda, the council was considering an ordinance to add transgender protections and gender identity protections to the existing anti-discrimination policy. As I listened to the testimony from doctors, lawyers and experts in policy analysis, one thing became crystal clear: This ordinance needs to pass.

I heard many personal testimonies of people that were assaulted, suicidal and harrassed. One thing in common througout all the stories was harm. Each story and every piece of data indicated the commonality of harrassment and bullying. I heard stories of people disproportionately losing their jobs, homes and campus housing. I heard an alarming rate of joblessness, homelessness and violence.

Whether or not you personally understand gender identity or what it means to be a transgender, one thing is clear to me: no one should be harmed for being authentic. No one should be bullied at school, at work or on the street. And the broken record that I heard in testimony from opponents was "what will we do when a transgender person is in the bathroom with me?" I don't know about you, but I am going to do what I go to the bathroom to do. I could care less who is in the stall next to me.

I read a story last week about a young middle school aged girl in Illnois who commit suicide after ridicule and bullying at school upon getting a short a haircut. Was she gay? Transgender? Who knows? And Who cares? The very tragedy of this story is that schoolmates acted on what they percieved to be a "boy" quality of having short hair. That's it. That is tragic. That is heartbreaking.

Is it really left-wing thinking to expect that people should be treated with respect and dignity and not beat up in a public bathroom or fired from a job? If so, call me a lefty. I am OK with that.

What makes a community unique is the diverse fabric of people knitted together and all the strengths that can be found within the differences they bring to the table. Let's learn from our neighbors in Howard County and make sure that all members of our community are protected from uneccessary violence!

Way to go Howard County!