Waiting for the News Media to Show Up
During the Sadie Darnell versus Lonnie Scott slugfest last summer, the Gainesville Sun printed not a word in its news reports about the aggressive charges Scott made against the incumbent sheriff. It was newsworthy. But the Sun was AWOL. I asked a Sun reporter about this strange absence from a real new story (when the headlines were reading that John Edwards’ mistress was an Ocala native), and I was told that they did not have the manpower to cover it.
Whenever I hear that there have been actual incidents in Gainesville in which a man uses a public women’s room at will, flaunting the immunity that the Transgender Bathroom Ordinance affords him, I also hear that the supporters of Charter Amendment One are, “just making that up”. And it’s easy for them to say so if the Sun or TV 20, or any other news outlet declines to do any investigative reporting. But what happens when there is an actual police report and surveillance camera video? The answer will still be, “they are just making that up” …if no one reports it.
Well, here is a start. I have a police report with the victim’s name and contact information blacked out. I don’t have the video…yet. But I am sure that someone with “legitimate” journalistic creds could get a look. But will they? And what else are we not hearing? Or seeing?
So far, we are getting a very selective view of this whole public safety issue. The Gainesville Chamber of Commerce has been cowed into taking a stand against Charter One because they have drunk the Kool-Aid. They are parroting the line that this is about discrimination. They are agreeing with the ideologically driven letters to the Sun that call Charter One supporters bigots. Meanwhile, when a local supermarket manager calls the police because women complain that a man just walks into the ladies room while they are in there, the police can only tell him that they are in “uncharted waters”.
We cannot depend on our institutions to protect us. They are selling out to politically driven policy makers who can make their lives miserable if they want to. Business people are worried about taking a stand because they feel threatened by the specter of being labeled “intolerant” in a University town. And I feel their pain. I know what it is like to have a customer drop my service because they disapprove of my stand on a moral issue. So much for tolerance.
In the secret place of the voting booth, no one will be able to watch what you are doing. No one will be able to exact revenge. But if you want to organize and work together with others who want to get the word out about Charter One, you may find yourself being defamed and intimidated. And it will probably go unreported.
In other food for the rumor mill: The ACLU has a full time staffer working with the Charter One opponents, Equality is Gainesville’s Business. And EIGB has hired a full time campaign manager. And the out of town money continues to roll in. EIGB has a $50K war chest as of the last financial report, and it’s coming from all over the US. Gainesville is a battleground city. Will you opt out of this struggle?
Rememeber, on election day they will count the votes, not the money.
Comments, please.
This would be more convincing if the police report contained page 2….a description of the crime.
1We’re lucky to have this much information…and that is the point. The police cannot afford to offend their bosses at city hall by making their ill-advised ordinance look bad. The Mayor’s office and the City Commissioners are NOT as concerned with public safety as they are with their political mission. Part one is definitely a smoking gun, with the officers’ names on it. And if the city has anything that shows that this report is a fraud, I think we’d be hearing about THAT.
2Hey Don. I am the city editor at the Alligator, and your blog got me and one my my writers, talking about the possibility that perhaps their are under-reported cases in which men have gone into woman’s rooms to commit crimes. If this is true, then we agree that the public should have access to this side of the story so they can make an informed decision on voting day. We’ve asked the GPD about it and the spokesman knows of no cases in which this has happened recently. But the spokesman isn’t privy to every case, so the only option for us is to go through loads of police reports. As an understaffed student newspaper we don’t have time to do so, but the good news is that everybody has access to these reports. Journalists have no official credentials, and are subject to the same public disclosure rules as everyone else. So if you are interested in taking on the task and going through the reports, you can call the jail at xxx-xxx-xxxx. If you find cases where this has happened then the Alligator would be more than happy to print a story including that information. Feel free to contact me at bdavis@alligator.org if you want to discuss this further. Thanks.
Brittany Davis
(Got a complaint from someone that the number given was his personal cell phone. -Editor)
3As usual, here in Titletown, we the people have to haul our own water because we cannot get the local media or our elected officials to look out for the public interest. I don’t know how these people sleep at night.
4Don they don’t report it because it has nothing to do with the transgender bathroom ordinance. This is obviously a case of voyeurism committed by a straight male. If the man used this excuse the police would laugh at him and the judge would call him an idiot.
But lets get something clear and be a little honest to each other. I have a basic knowledge of your dogma and beliefs. You deny and do not acknowledge the mounds of research and case studies concerning homosexuals and the transgendered, not, and let me make this clear, because you have any real evidence but because of your religion. You believe that homosexuals and the transgendered are under the influence of Demons who have whispered temptations into their ears while they literally hover around them. You even believe that some, if not all, are literally possessed by Demons of “Gayness”. You believe these people are under the influence of evil and are therefore not naturally transgendered or homosexual and so should not be given equal rights. Besides God said they should be put to death Leviticus 20:13
Now I don’t mind if you believe this but be honest about it. Don’t keep on repeating that you are worried that straight men might use it as an excuse to abuse women.
5Ronnie, even if all the things you thought you knew about me were true, they would still be irrelevant. Likewise, all of your life experiences that have colored your thinking are also irrelevant. This is about the law, one that I don’t think you have bothered to read.
Our current local law, that has chosen to define gender identity by anything the bearer has “the inner sense” of possessing, creates a shield for any man who wants to use the ladies room. Just because he does not rape a woman does not mean he is welcome.
Religious people did not write this law, Ronnie. We did not ask for this piece of lunacy to be crafted. We have asked for it to be fixed, and we have been called bigots for our trouble. Therefore, since we cannot trust our elected officials to use common sense, the people have decided to force the issue in an election. The mayor and her crew have made this necessary.
The funny thing is, Ronnie, that people like yourself, who apparently are in favor of loophole legislation like ours, are the ones who repeatedly bring up religion into the discussion. It’s always used to end the discussion, because you cannot last more than a few minutes on the facts.
The fact is, charges are not being brought against voyeurs because of this law. The uncertainty that it has created has brought about a rash of complaints that no one will investigate. And the good people of this city who want to be heard are being lied about because of this law.
6Which cases do you refer to Don? Your link shows us a police report concerning voyeurism. Which cases of voyeurism have been ignored by the police, which cases have been dismissed by judges?
The police and the legal system know that this law has been designed to protect the rights of transgendered people. When it comes to police and our judges we depend on them to use their common sense. They aren’t idiots. You insult the quality of the men and women who protect us by claiming they would excuse any voyeur for this reason.
But why is it that most of the laws opponents are so “church” centered? Only a small survey would be needed to find them to be predominantly christian.
I want you to answer some questions.
Do you believe that homosexuals/transgendered are under demonic or evil influence and that because of this they are not in a natural state?
If so how can you put aside your obvious discrimination when considering this law?
7Ronnie, I am not taking the bait. You want to make this about churches and various religious boogeymen when this is clearly about the law. And it is the very lack of follow-up on recent cases that underlines the problem. The “inner sense” language creates a legal shield for any man who “feels” like a woman and chooses to go to the ladies’ room.
We depended on our city commissioners to have common sense and they FAILED US. That is why we, the citizens, have sought a solution. This is a stop-gap measure. But the long term solution is for Gainesville citizens, who usually avoid the polls in the Spring, to stop electing people who do not protect their safety or their interests.
8108 cities or counties have similar laws, some of these have been in place since the seventies.
There have been no recorded cases in which sexual assault or voyeurism has been defended by similar laws. There have been no known cases in which voyeurism has been ignored/excused because of such laws. You have yet to produce evidence.
So your assertions are unfounded, at best they are scare tactics.
In a previous article you published on the same subject you yourself observed that those gathered in the thousands to protest where form mostly of “local churches”
If this has nothing to do with Religion why there such a close correlation? Are the only reasonable people Christians who think that being transgendered is a sin?
But I agree for the sake of fair reporting, I think you should report weather you have a basic bias against transsexuals. Include the reasons why, don’t leave out the demon part. You should be as fair as the media you criticize.
9You are making that number up. It’s false. There is no way there are 108 other communities in the US stupid enough to give a man the right to go into a ladies room if he has an “inner sense” of being female. Only Gainesville is that “special”. Go find me another city with that kind of idiotic rule.
You are using The Big Lie tactics, Ronnie. Saying it over and over does not make it true. I have gone on record on this website saying that if a transgendered person had a doctor’s orders that he/she was undergoing sex change procedures that I would not object to him/her using the facilities that would be used in the future state of being (or whatever you want to call it).
For all the whining you do about Christians and what you believe they are thinking and feeling, you are incredibly judgmental. And self-righteous.
I’m sure there are some people who will vote for Charter One who are mean and nasty haters of transgendered people. Just as there are some people who will vote AGAINST it because they have all kinds of vendettas against churches and personal scores to settle that they are projecting on people who don’t agree with their politics. Would you like to round up all of these people and keep them from voting?
10I have no vendetta against Christianity. I do get angry when any group of people is motivated by superstition or unfounded fear and yet claim they are being “rational” it is a farce.
It is no coincidence that scriptural literalists have been the major opponents to equal rights for homosexuals and now Transsexuals over the last forty years. The Mormon’s championed it in California’s last election. The Intelligent design debate is also another example.
Have you done your homework? I’ve done a little. Seattle includes in it’s definition for it’s use of “Gender orientation” this. “including a person’s attitudes,
preferences, beliefs, and practices pertaining thereto” That was in 1986
Sounds a lot like “inner sense” to me.
11In response to Ron McVicar: your impassioned poorly thought out and judgmental views show that you are just as prejudiced as the authors of this bill.
As for Ron Marsh: your standpoint and solution to the transgender bathrooms issue would be good but that has little to nothing to do with Charter Amendment One. Charter Amendment One deletes the portions of our city charter regarding gender identity AND sexual orientation. BATHROOMS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH SEXUAL ORIENTATION. Are you honestly suggesting it would have been too difficult to only target only the paragraph or two referencing who uses what bathrooms?
12That’s completely ridiculous. The authors of the bill deliberately framed it so it allows housing and job discrimination against LGBT citizens. Even calling it the “transgender ordinance” is dishonest as that issue is only a small component.
Call your city commissioners if you don’t like it. They asked for this when they would not compromise.
13That was a non sequitur. The authors of the amendment could have worded it to only remove the transgender bathroom issue. Nothing stopped them from focusing on the bathroom issue. Their deliberate wording to remove all rights for gender identity and sexual orientation (an unrelated category) shows they have a secret prejudiced agenda. So here’s my question: Are you ok with gay citizens being fired from their jobs, kicked out of their homes, or kicked out of restaurants? Because that is what this bill will allow.
14Sounds like a “scare tactic” to me. Business people and landlords want customers and tenants. Employers need good employees. Nobody needs a predator or voyeur in the ladies room…
15I’m saddened that someone could say that in this day and age. That someone cares that little for others. Why don’t we remove rights for the blacks too? They commit lots of crimes. And the Japanese can go back to concentration camps. Better safe than sorry, no?
“When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
16there was no one left to speak out.”
Yeah. This will go down in history as the Bathroom Holocaust. You should be embarrassed to make such a comparison.
17I guess equal housing and employment is a trifle campared with the thousands of bathroom crimes that we hear so many complaints about? (added by Mobile using Mippin)
18I don’t think it’s “thousands” but it doesn’t have to be. But whatever it is, you consider it a trifle. And all this housing and employment that are being denied to the “thousands” of transgendered persons is also a matter that stretches credulity.
So far, all the discrimination I have heard described took place in another town in another time and we in Gainesville are supposed to shut up and roll over to these testimonies. Fortunately, ours is a democratic republic, and the people will have a say on march 24.
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