Hostility against I-1515 uncalled for
Proponents of Initiative 1515, who call themselves the “Just Want Privacy” campaign, convened at the University of Washington Tacoma last week for what they billed as a civil discussion. What they got instead was a barrage of taunts and insults.
Maya Dillard Smith, former director of American Civil Liberties Union, came from Georgia to speak on behalf of I-1515, saying her life’s work has been about protecting women and children. But her message was muddled in the mire of name-calling.
Like all the speakers, Dillard Smith had a difficult time competing with shouts of “bigot” and “homophobe” repeated as if on auto-play. One woman from the balcony yelled down that Dillard Smith was a “self-hating black woman.”
The rancor got so out of hand that university security had to escort protesters out.
It should be noted that the UW “discussion” took place three days after the Orlando gay nightclub shooting. Emotions were raw, and here we have an initiative that targets transgender people.
While some I-1515 foes in the crowd didn’t exactly cover themselves with glory, initiative proponents should have expected some backlash.
They will tell you they're fighting for safety for everyone. They believe Washington Administrative Code 162-32 requiring businesses to grant bathroom and locker room access on the basis of gender identity will be used as way for miscreants to sexually assault women, or at least violate their privacy.
Their fear is evidenced by their logo, which shows a stick figure peering over a bathroom stall at another stick figure sitting on a toilet, against a silhouette of the state of Washington. The logo is so over the top, one doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Strong laws already forbid this kind of voyeuristic activity, but the “Just Want Privacy” speakers at UW imagined a hypothetical world where men would enter locker rooms and spas for their viewing pleasure.
Assuaging these fears requires talk of logic and laws, not name-calling. Historical context might also serve as a guide.
When the 13th Amendment abolished slavery after the Civil War, white Southerners also concerned themselves with commodes. It was a pivotal point in time, a chance for white Southerners to embrace freedom or succumb to prejudice and fear – fear of sharing a sink, or anything else, with African Americans.
The South chose fear, and for almost 100 years, in the name of a “separate but equal’ solution, institutionalized discrimination belittled, humiliated and denied non-whites their right to live as full human beings.
The legacy of the Jim Crow laws is still being addressed today. It’s why tempers flare over proposals like I-1515, specifically calling for a “separate but equal” solution.
One year ago, another group won a hard-fought freedom. In a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage. And now we arrive at another historical pivot in this post Civil War-era: Do we potty like it’s 1869, or do we forgo fear and move forward in good faith and freedom?
If historical symmetry teaches us anything, it’s that hostility does not win the day. What pushes the moral arc are civility and courage, like the kind embodied by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The “Just Want Privacy” campaigners, whether you agree with them or not, did not deserve the treatment they received last week.
This story was originally published June 23, 2016 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Hostility against I-1515 uncalled for."