Only three weeks into his new job, Gary Howell is already making noise in Lansing.
Say what you will about the man just elected to replace Todd Courser in the state House, but he's already made good on one campaign promise of his, co-sponsoring a bipartisan set of bills that would end the exemption the governor's office currently has from the Freedom Of Information Act. The set of bills, HBs 5469-5468, go one step further by creating the Legislative Open Records Act, which would function similarly to FOIA for state legislators, though in a press release regarding the bills, sponsor Ed McBroom (R- Vulcan) claimed that certain provisions in the state constitution, namely the Speech and Debate and Separation of Powers Clauses, prevent them from simply applying FOIA as it stands to the legislature, but that the LORA works around those issues by subjecting such requests to a non-partisan review by the Legislative Council Administrator. If nothing else, it's a step in the right direction, and a sign that the Legislature is listening to calls for increased transparency.
And if we could have called it a week right there, all would have been well and good. But then, Rep. Howell decided to weigh in on a more controversial issue.
As you've probably already heard by now, the State Board of Education has been discussing a set of policies aimed at ensuring fair treatment for gay, lesbian, and transgender students. Among other things, the steps being suggested (note: all of said guidelines are optional, and some are already in place in some districts) include adopting policies to protect LGBT's from harassment, violence, and discrimination; the creation of extracurricular clubs for these students; and referring to students by their chosen name and gender pronouns. Basically, the way you'd treat anybody if you're not a completely horrible person.
Of course, there's one particular part of the guidelines that several conservative politicians have latched onto as being completely unacceptable: Allowing transgender students to use the bathroom that corresponds with the gender they identify as. In a press release, Rep. Howell took exception to the suggestion of allowing students to choose which gender they identify with: "The Michigan State Board of Education is eroding parental rights to the degree that parents will not even be entitled to know what gender clothing their child is wearing during the school day." Now, if the parents of a transgender child are aware of and accepting of it, great. Those aren't the parents these policies are put in place for. What about the parents that, if they knew their children were transgender, would disown, abuse, or kick out their children for having come out as such? Those children shouldn't be protected?
Admittedly, the restroom issue is a somewhat complicated one, and no resolution proposed so far is going to make all parties happy. The idea of single-occupancy bathrooms has been shouted down on both sides, with some on the pro-trans side arguing that they shouldn't be forcibly ostracized further, while many on the other side don't feel they should have to accommodate "confused" children. (A rather unfortunate way of looking at it, anyway, implying it to be some sort of "phase" they'll "grow out of.") And that same side certainly won't be happy about letting gender identity determine which restroom to use, claiming that it would be, to quote Howell again, "potentially putting the health and safety of children at risk." So, here we go with this idea that all transgender people are predators, that just want to sneak into women's restrooms and assault them. Ironically enough, LGBT students are 2.3 times more likely to be threatened or injured by their classmates, and transgender people are far more likely to be the victim of violence in the "right" bathroom than to assault anybody in the wrong one. Infinitely so, in fact, as the latter has literally never happened. And this hasn't been an issue any place where it's been put into effect, save for a few men intentionally violating the laws in some sort of attempt to creep people out enough to get them repealed. But clearly it's those transgender students, creeping around to spy on girls in the bathroom, that are the issue.
Good lord, did these people learn everything they know about LGBT people from watching 80's sitcoms?
Of course, the most common argument thrown out on this issue is that "you're whatever gender the doctor/your parents decide at birth, and that's IT. The 'plumbing' is what it is." Of course, that's not always true; beyond the obvious examples of those born as hermaphrodites, approximately one in 1,500 people are born with genetic and anatomical characteristics that don't match the sex they were assigned at birth, and these assignments are often made without taking into account hormonal changes that take place during puberty, when their gender identities are more fully developed.
And there's a few places promoting bunk science as well, or at the least, religious propaganda disguising itself as science. In a link that's been making the rounds, the "American College of Pediatricians" have blasted the very idea of being transgender, making the absurd call to "reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex." Now, before you take these people even somewhat seriously, a little background: The ACP was founded in 2002 by former members of the American Academy of Pediatrics (the legitimate pediatric association) who were incensed that the AAP wouldn't condemn gay adoption, and is far more concerned more with promoting its own religious agenda than with the health and well-being of children.
This is certainly an issue for which almost no solution is going to satisfy everybody, But it's still rather disappointing to see the same tired narratives being trotted out again, and I would have hoped for better from our state representative than to continue to perpetuate stereotypes that simply have no basis in reality.
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