'Bathroom bills' scare merely a cynical shift in anti-gay lies

The right has abandoned this fear tactic because

this one is more successful.

The success of the anti-gay right with stopping a non-discrimination act in Houston has led the Family Research Council to heights of great audacity.

In Houston, anti-gay activists stopped the measure by claiming that  it would lead to male predators invading women's restrooms, i.e. exploiting ignorance about the transgender community. The Family Research Council is using the same distortions to stop a national non-discrimination ordinance, The Equality Act.

FRC spokesman Peter Sprigg had an interview with the American Family Association's One News Now in which he spouted off several lies:

Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council notes that U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) is sponsoring the "Equality Act," which would amend current federal laws to protect homosexuals based on claims of discrimination. Asked if the Equality Act mirrors the non-discrimination bill that was recently defeated by voters in Houston, Sprigg tells OneNewsNow that it is.

In fact, he says, it also includes the "public accommodations" requirement in Houston's HERO law. That allowance is the reason Houstonians described HERO as a "bathroom bill" and likely a reason it was soundly defeated. 

The Equalty Act would give homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals, trangender, and "gender noncomforming people" access to "places of public accommodations,"  Lambda Legal, a pro-homosexual legal organization, admits on its website.

"And it does not make any exception for facilities in which there's a normal expectation of privacy from the opposite sex such as restrooms, locker rooms and showers," Sprigg warns. "So it would be a bathroom bill on a national level being forced on all 50 states."

Sprigg and the rest of the religious are merely exploiting a useful hook. In the past, they spoke against ENDA, another national non-discrimination ordinance which lgbts were attempting to make into law, by claiming that children would be "trapped" in classrooms with "drag queen" and "cross-dressing" teachers:

It now seems that they have abandoned the classroom lie because focusing on bathrooms and locker rooms, where females are seemingly more vulnerable, reaps more success.

If you don't think so, check out the comment section under the Sprigg article.  The religious right know how to exploit a good scare when they see one.

Of course it's a lie. Transgender-inclusive non-discrimination ordinances will NOT lead to predators coming into women's restrooms and bathrooms. In fact, that has never been a problem with other areas which do have transgender-inclusive non-discrimination ordinances.

 The following graphic is courtesy of Media Matters:

But we know what they say about how hard it is for the truth to compete with a lie, particularly one draped in religion and false concerns about safety.  The sad thing is that people are either so scared or so exploited by their religious beliefs, they won't see that they are being used by folks like Sprigg and organizations like the Family Research Council