The success of a lie

They say that a lie can travel around the world before the truth has time to put its shoes on.

This is very true in Maryland at the moment.

Apparently fear stories of men invading women's restrooms and hoaxes involving men in women's gym locker rooms have their uses.

Opponents of allowing the county's an anti-discrimination law to include transgendered people have turned more than 28,000 signatures into the Board of Elections to bring the legislation up to a vote by county residents.

The group, Citizens for Responsible Government, formed after the County Council passed the legislation last year, needed 5 percent, or 25,001 valid signatures for the referendum in the November balloting.

So if enough signatures are valid, there will be a referendum this November regarding the appeal of the anti-discrimination laws.

Now the way Citizens for Responsible Government went about gathering signatures was just wrong.

I talked about it before and it bears repeating. They told people the law actually allows men to invade women's locker rooms and rest rooms.

I am not kidding. I saw a news program where Lisa Gundling, woman gathering signatures, was interviewed. She actually told the interviewer that the law would allow men to enter women's rest rooms. She even actually said that the men don't have to go to any trouble of dressing up like women.

Don't believe me? Check out this link.

Also, from what I understand, the group was allegedly helped by pastors who told their congregations that the new law would lead to men invading women's restrooms. And to top it all off, it is possible that they staged a hoax involving a man dressed in women's attire going into a local gym's ladies locker room.

Talk about pulling out all of the stops. Very Machiavellian but not very Christian.

I really don't think that any of the people collecting signatures actually believe their own hogwash. Bear in mind that this group began with challenging the area schools' sex education curriculum.

They won at first but then proceeded to be stymied with every attempt to stop the new curriculum from being taught. And with every attempt, the group gave a new and faulty reasoning why the curriculum shouldn't be taught.

With their fight against the anti-discrimination law, they relied on the classic but still effective "this law endangers us all, especially children."

That's right. In many of their pleas, they actually said that the law endangers children.

What they did was to read the law, looking for a loophole. And when they found one, small one that it was, they distorted its implications as much as they could:

The County Council and County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) approved the law after removing a contentious amendment that would have also regulated areas like bathrooms and locker rooms. Without the amendment, operators of those facilities would retain authority on who uses them.

But opponents, such as CRG - which initially argued against the bathroom provision - still argue that the law is too vague.

Without question, this group has received help from national anti-gay industry groups. I recognize the anti-gay industry tactic of "dire consequences," i.e. claiming that a law protecting lgbts will lead to negative consequences for the entire community without giving proof as to how.
There is one group fighting their nonsense. And I wish them all of the luck.

One thing about truth: when it finally arrives, it takes care of the situation.

CRG and its supporters would do well to remember that.

You can only lie for so long before it bites you in the ass.