Anti-trans group admits bathroom predator myth is made up“An anti-trans group has acknowledged the f
Anti-trans group admits bathroom predator myth is made up“An anti-trans group has acknowledged the failure of bathroom predator scare-mongering tactics in the Massachusetts referendum on transgender rights protections.The realisation came as part of an analysis of the failure of the anti-trans campaign published on the website of MassResistance, an organisation claiming to advocate for family rights, as first reported by Into. The hate crime watchdog Southern Poverty Law Center classifies MassResistance as a anti-LGBT hate group.The MassResistance analysis on the anti-trans campaign’s defeat criticised the focus on the so-called “bathroom safety” argument—the baseless claim that non-discrimination laws expose women-only spaces to sexual predators.During the referendum campaign, anti-trans groups produced a visual interpretation of the argument, creating a video ad that trans campaigners criticised as “fear-mongering” and relying on “lies.”The video featured a scene in which a man hides in a toilet cubicle as a teenage girl walks in and begins to undress as the man peers out of the cubicle.The MassResistance post, which does not have an author—but presumably reflects the viewpoint of the group’s founder and president, Brian Camenker—described the “bathroom safety” argument as “technically true, but was largely contrived.”Researchers analysed data for a period before and after the 2016 bill passed, comparing criminal incident reports related to assault, sex crimes and voyeurism in public restrooms, locker rooms and dressing rooms between locations in Massachusetts that enforced trans-inclusive policies versus those that did not.Findings indicated that reports decreased after the bill was passed. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Sexuality Research and Social Policy in July and concluded that “fears of increased safety and privacy violations as a result of nondiscrimination laws are not empirically grounded.”Read the full piece here -- source link
#trans#transgender#trans rights#trans equality#bathroom access#bathroom rights#lgbt#lgbtq#lgbtqia+