Religion
Related: About this forumAnti-Trans Group Admits Bathroom Bill Fear-Mongering Was "Largely Contrived"
https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2018/12/09/anti-trans-group-admits-bathroom-bill-fear-mongering-was-largely-contrived/
Anti-Trans Group Admits Bathroom Bill Fear-Mongering Was Largely Contrived
By Hemant Mehta, December 9, 2018
Last month, Massachusetts voted to keep an anti-discrimination law that protected transgender rights. It wasnt even close; the ballot measure passed with 67% of the votes. It was excellent news for supporters of civil rights and bad news for Christian bigots who believe treating LGBTQ people with respect violates their faith.
The result also led to some soul-searching from anti-trans hate groups like MassResistance, whose leaders are trying to figure out where they went wrong and what they can do to secure wins in the future.
Their most surprising revelation? They admitted it didnt help their side talking about predatory men dressing up as women and hunting for victims in bathrooms because it was largely contrived. (No kidding. Thats exactly what decent people have been saying for years: Trans people use the bathrooms for the same reason as everybody else, not because theyre searching for prey.)The rallying cry of the pro-family groups trying to repeal the law was the well-known bathroom safety argument that in addition to transgenders, this law allows male sexual predators to lurk in womens restrooms to prey on girls and women. This was technically true, but was largely contrived. They also talked about privacy in restrooms and locker rooms. They did NOT address the civil rights claim which gave the LGBT lobby a complete free pass to use it without pushback. Nor did they address the bizarre and delusional nature of transgenderism itself in their arguments, except to say that transgenders already have good legal protections and didnt need more.
Now with the transgender anti-discrimination bills the same thing is happening. Our side concocted the bathroom safety male predator argument as a way to avoid an uncomfortable battle over LGBT ideology, and still fire up peoples emotions. It worked in Houston a few years ago.
But the LGBT lobby has now figured out how to beat it. Their lopsided victory in Massachusetts will likely be repeated everywhere else unless the establishment pro-family groups (and their wealthy donors) are willing to change their tactics.
In other words, the pro-family side chose the wrong lie, allowing sensible people to write them off as fear-mongering haters, and thats why people voted in support of civil rights. (Oh, the horror.)
Major Nikon
(36,899 posts)Any standard of ethics, law, or decency goes out the window.
That's how abortion doctor murders are harbored. That's how FLDS child rapists escape prosecution, sometimes indefinitely. That's how RCC priests are relocated, sometimes internationally, to avoid prosecution. That's how victims within some congregations are counseled against reporting crimes.
Religion makes it very easy to prey on the vulnerable, who often resort to religion to protect them against the very things they wind up getting victimized with in many cases. For this reason, religious authorities have a greater duty to protect their membership from these things as is the case with organizations like scouting. Instead in many cases they do everything they can to make sure "gods' law" trumps that of mere humans.
Pope George Ringo II
(1,896 posts)Their invisible friend says transgender people are delusional. Where's Alanis Morissette when you need her?