By Ann Rostow–
Once More unto the Breach—
As this issue goes to press, the House is poised to pass our signature civil rights legislation, the Equality Act, for a second time. Last session’s efforts went nowhere in the Republican controlled Senate, where the Act was not brought to committee. But this time around we should at the very least get some hearings and attention.
Will we get the required 60 Senate votes to defeat a filibuster? Well, you can count, can’t you? The answer to that is no. Even our friendly “moderate” Republicans are reluctant to support us. Mitt Romney worries about “religious freedom,” while our hardcore opponents hint at a range of anti-trans horrors featuring tough high school boys who barge in on the girls’ tennis team and prance around the locker room. These little bruisers, our adversaries imply, may be able to present themselves as trans-girls on their say-so alone, giving themselves legal permission to violate the full range of privacy issues like the kids in those summer camp movies who sneak peaks at the hot counselor in the shower. There are many other absurd scenarios that play out in the minds of anti-GLBT lawmakers, much as the notion of marriage equality triggered fears of marrying animals or several people at a time.