California signature gatherer caught lying to trick people into discriminating against trans children

Groups who want a legal right to discriminate against transgender children seem to be pulling out all the stops. An ex-gay group, the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), recently went on an ugly smear campaign targeting a Colorado trans kid in what seems to be a ham-handed effort to manufacture talking points for their California battle against trans children. While the campaign was proven to be a hoax, it nonetheless resulted in the conservative community calling for the beating death of the innocent trans kid.

Now, another anti-trans group has been caught lying to the public in an effort to trick people into supporting the effort to legally discriminate against trans children:

The recording was made in front of a Walmart in southern California. What follows is the transcript between the dishonest anti-trans activist and his mark.

TRANSCRIPT:

Signature Gatherer: Ma’am, would you sign the petition to say no to same-sex restrooms at the schools…

Victim: Uhm…

SG: This puts it on the ballot. Gay- gay students at the schools, like the gay guys who want to go in the restrooms with girls…

V: Gay guys?

SG: Yes.

V: Why do the gay guys want to go to the girls’ restroom when they like guys?

SG: That’s what I thought.

V: Yeah…

SG: But what this does…

V: But, but, but what are gay guys doing going into the girls rest room?

SG: (exasperated) I don’t know, they just want to make, y’know, to be able to make it, like, both restrooms, whatever they…

V: Both of them?

SG: Yes. Well, just whatever they prefer, like when a guy, uhm, y’know, wanna’… But this right here puts it on the ballot and stops it.

V: Uh-hum…

SG: It says the girls must go to the girls room and…

V: And how does it stop it?

SG: It puts it on the ballot, and then we’ll vote on it. Majority votes, and (unintelligible)

Lying to people so that they lend their good names to an effort designed to harm trans kids is reprehensible. However, what is to be expected from a group so willingly eager to destroy the life of a Colorado trans kid if it means scoring a few political points in their newfound war against trans kids.

pij
The PJI statement that kicked off the smear campaign against the Colorado trans kid.

 

CONTEXT:

Having lost the Prop 8 battle, equality foes have found a new target: transgender children.

The law protecting transgender children, which California Gov. Jerry Brown signed in August, says schools must treat transgender students as equal to cisgender students.  A coalition of anti-LGBT groups calling itself “Privacy for All Students” has circulated 200,000 anti-trans petitions throughout California. Their goal is to collect 505,000 valid signatures by November 12, 2013. If they collect those signatures, it will stop the trans equality law from taking effect in January and put the civil rights of trans kids up for popular vote in November 2014.

The old Prop 8 cast of characters have organized as the coalition for the “Privacy for All Students.” Care to take a guess at who’s one of the largest supporters of the coalition?

Yup, you guessed it!  It’s the Pacific Justice Institute – the same group currently orchestrating a smear campaign against one 16 year old trans kid in Colorado.  PJI claims that if these trans-equality policies go into effect, it will lead to government-sponsored X-rated scenes in all the public schools:

Of course, PJI won’t tell you that these California-style policies have already been enacted across the country, even in America’s most conservative areas.  For example, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Dallas and Ft. Worth Texas public school districts all have California-style policies protecting trans kids. These policies have been in effect for years without incident.

After providing a $10,000 boost to the effort to collect signatures in California for repealing trans protections for school children, the PJI sent out a fundraising letter last week claiming that they’ve sent the LGBT community scrambling in a “near-panic.”

 


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Cristan Williams is a trans historian and pioneer in addressing the practical needs of underserved communities. She started the first trans homeless shelter in Texas and co-founded the first federally funded housing-first homeless program, pioneered affordable health care for trans people in the Houston area, won the right for trans people to change their gender on Texas ID prior to surgery, started numerous trans social service programs and founded the Transgender Center as well as the Transgender Archives. She has published short stories, academic chapters and papers, and numerous articles for both print and digital magazines. She received numerous awards for her advocacy and has presented at universities throughout the nation, served on several governmental committees and CBO boards, is the Editor of the TransAdvocate, and is a founding board member of the Transgender Foundation of America and the Bee Busy Wellness Center.