Old Line Elephant Maryland Conservative Blog

Baltimore County 3-12

A number of Baltimore County Democrats (excluding my representative, John Olzewski, Sr), have proposed a very simple bill entitled, "An Act Concerning Human Relations" AKA Bill 3-12. What does this bill do? It's an attempt to prevent discrimination against homosexuals and transgendered people, adding them to the existing list of protected groups under anti-discrimination laws.

Now, let me begin by saying this - discrimination is horrible. Attempts to attack or hurt someone based on their sexual orientation or other lifestyle choice is reprehensible. It's just as awful as attacking someone for any other characteristic of their personality. It's terrible and already illegal. Also, we all realize that it's not right to fire someone from their job or to raise the price of a good merely because you discover that someone is different from yourself.

Now I've gotten that out of the way, let's go back to the legislation at hand. The legislation will prevent discrimination regarding the following items:

• Housing
• Employment
• Education
• Public Accommodation
• Financing

Herein lies a few problems, specifically because of the vagueness of the legislation. Will this require religious organizations to hire those who's lifestyle contradicts their beliefs (homosexuals, transgendered persons)? Will this require public accommodations to be made special for transgendered persons? Or are transgendered persons able to use whichever restroom they feel like that day? Are traditional dress codes in professional business establishments required to change to accommodate?

Regarding education - what exactly does that mean? Ann Miller of Red Maryland believes there may be an additional agenda regarding transgendered persons and the education system, which you can read about in the aforementioned link. Will public schools be required to teach about transgendered studies? Will schools be required to accommodate for those students who believe they are a different gender than they are physically in school sports?

Also, what if one does not identify with a gender? Will engendered roles be offensive to them? It's difficult to say the full ramification of this legislation, especially with how vaguely it is worded. The bottom line is this legislation is so vague that it would protect under the law a man who decides he feels like hanging out in women's restrooms all day, so he dresses like a woman. It's written in such a way that the original intent has become lost and there's too many holes.

If we want to protect minority groups from discrimination - go ahead, but find a better way.