Video gives a vindictive, unfair portrait of the transgender community

This has to be the single most vindictive display of transgender bashing I have ever seen on video not involving violence.

From Media Matters:

For the past several weeks, conservative media outlets have been stoking fears about a new California law that will allow transgender students to have access to school facilities and sports teams that match their gender identity. The law has drawn criticism from outlets like Fox News, which warns that the law will allow boys to sneak into girls' bathrooms and engage in inappropriate behavior.

Case in point: Media Research Center Content Specialist Dan Joseph, who on August 15 released a video in which he poses as a transgender female and asks a woman if she would be comfortable with him using the same restroom as her.

That point of the video happens at 5:31. Media Matters also says:

Other than attempting to feminize his voice, Joseph doesn't present himself in any way as a female in the clip. He is wearing men's clothing, has a full goatee, and goes by his male name, "Dan." His impersonation is a perfect example of everything that's wrong with how conservative media imagine transgender people.

Unlike Joseph's character, most people who are actually transgender make efforts to present and appear in a way that matches their gender identity. Transgender women don't typically walk around in men's clothing will full faces of facial hair. They don't typically refer to themselves as "a transgender." And they certainly don't stand outside of women's restrooms announcing themselves and asking passerbys for permission to "go in there... and change and shower and stuff."

Media Matters points out that the purpose of this video is not to give accurate information about the transgender community, but to gin up fear and anger by amplifying the homophobic stereotypes created about transgenders.

I couldn't agree with this more.