Controversial Law on Gender Identity Tested
posted 5:36 pm Tue January 15, 2008 - Gaithersburg
Around 1 p.m. Monday, a man wearing a dress walked into the women's locker room surprising Mary Ann Ondray who was drying her hair. "I could see his muscles, I could see his large hands. He was wearing a blue ruffled skirt that came down to above the knee." The male left without saying anything, but Ondray says, "I was very upset, I'm still upset. There's a lot he could've seen."
Club officials say he is a male club member, but it's still unclear why he was dressed as a woman or why he didn't use a designated family restroom.The incident tests Montgomery County's new and still controversial law that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity.
One resident says, "just to think you gonna work out and you gonna run into this type of things... I'm pretty turned off right now!"
Councilmember Duchy Trachtenburg has dismissed bathroom concerns as a diversion from legislation designed to protect transgendered people. But businesses are now scrambling to figure the law out, trying to avoid lawsuits and still keep customers happy.
Sport and Health's President Jonathan Adler, issued a statement Tuesday saying, "new laws represent new opportunities, and sport and health clubs will utilize this occasion to review our policies and procedures in Mongomery County with our legal counsel."
Theresa Rickman says, "the problem is, the language is so vague that guys can still go in the ladies room."
Opponents are hoping to gather 25,000 signatures to put the new law up for a public referendum in November.
Latest Comment on Controversial Law on Gender Identity Tested
omnidon.3
1:56 pm on 02/16/08
I too am suspicious of this convenient coincidence. More concerning is the continuing determination to equate transgenders and homosexuals with molesters and predators. The ABC reporter said "... already there is lots of confusion, .... Does this new law mean that a transgender, a cross-gender, even a predator will be allowed into women's locker rooms." By what rationale do you equate predators with transgender and cross-gender people. In the first place there is no correllation between them except in the minds of bigots. Secondly, predators are not protected by any laws to commit crimes nor are they willing to follow them. That's what makes them predators. A predator is going to enter any area, authorized or not, and commit a crime against someone and he/she is not going to tell a judge that they are innocent because the law said they could do it.
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