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| The American Family Association just got caught in a lie. |
An attack on the rights of transgender men and women exploiting the
"bathroom predator" myth demonstrates just how eager religious right groups are when it comes to telling lies and smearing lgbts.
One News Now, the fake news publication of the
anti-lgbt hate group American Family Association ran an
article yesterday which claimed that transgender women put other women at risk in the public restrooms in Massachusetts. In order to justify this claim, the publication referenced a recent event:
A woman who
requested anonymity was in a women's bathroom at a T.J. Maxx in
Plainville, Massachusetts and recalls her experience in an interview with WCVB TV:
"I looked down and I saw a man's shoes, and as I looked up, there was the camera. His cell phone camera was in my stall."
She left and asked store personnel to call
police, and when they let her know they were forbidden to do so, she
made a 9-1-1 call herself. Police soon arrived and arrested 48-year-old
Gabriel Muniz, who has pled not guilty. But Chanel Prunier of
Keep MA Safe tells OneNewsNow this woman may not have been the only victim.
"When security later viewed the footage,
they found that he had been in the bathroom for over a half hour, so
it's entirely possible that he videoed and photographed other women
without their knowledge," Prunier reports.
Similar incidents have been reported
throughout the country, especially at Target stores. But in
Massachusetts, the problems stem from a state anti-discrimination law
that includes transgenders. That means a man can say he is transgender,
whether or not it is the truth, and pose privacy and safety dangers for
women.
Unfortunately, the incident did take place, so One News Now's rendition of the situation was accurate EXCEPT for the last part:
. . . in
Massachusetts, the problems stem from a state anti-discrimination law
that includes transgenders.
Nothing in the original story (the link was provided by One News Now itself) said anything about the transgender community. And no one indicated that the suspect pretended to be a transgender woman. Not the victim, not the police, and definitely not the suspect himself. Basically there nothing to indicate that the incident had anything to with the state's anti-discrimination law.
No doubt, One News Now and the American Family Association hoped to scare its readers by pushing a horror story. What they succeeded in doing is demonstrating just how low they will stoop to attack the transgender community.
