Video: TV ad campaign uses scare tactics to oppose trans toilet access
A law protecting the rights of transgender people in Gainesville, Florida has been the subject of a provocative TV ad campaign.
Last year, it was decided that transgender people should be given the option to use whichever toilet they felt happier with, as part of the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance.
A 4-3 majority at the city commission voted in the provision, and almost immediately there were campaigns launched to the decision reversed.
A television advert released recently by opponents to the law goes as far as to imply that it gives sex attackers pretending to be transgender people the option to follow victims into toilets.
In this instance, a young blonde-haired girl is shown being followed by a middle-aged man, despite the fact that there have been no reported incidents to police as a result of the new law.
The chairman of Citizens for Good Public Policy, Cain Davis, said: “We know when men go into women’s restrooms bad things can happen.”
However, campaigns have also been launched by groups which support the law, and who claim that these adverts are part of a more general attack on the LGBT community.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has stated that 108 cities and countries have in place similar systems which protect the rights of transgender people.
Groups that oppose the law want to have the provision revoked in a March 24th ballot measure.
