Tiger Bay panelists: Transgender issue transcends bathrooms

As national conversation continues over who can use which restroom, panelists at the Manatee Tiger Bay Club monthly meeting Thursday said the issue is about much more than just bathrooms.

“This is all about balancing two interests,” said Michael Allen, professor and associate dean at the Stetson University College of Law. “This isn’t just about same-sex marriage or bathrooms.”

Gina Duncan, director of transgender inclusion for Equality Florida Action, said she and others in the transgender community are frustrated the issue has boiled down to bathrooms.

J. Phillip Hamm, senior pastor at the First Baptist Church of Palmetto, began by apologizing for the hatred aimed at the transgender community over the issue.

With the recent passage of religious freedom and bathroom laws, most notably the bill passed into law in North Carolina, organizers with Manatee Tiger Bay Club brought the issue to Manatee.

“There’s certainly no shortage of emotion on all sides of the argument,” said Ben Bakker, club president.

Hamm said he feels the federal government is cherry picking where it intervenes and who the federal government chooses to protect. That’s his issue, he said.

“What bothers me is the inconsistency I see in the federal government,” he said. “It’s the responsibility of our government to protect the rights of everybody without endangering the rights of anybody.”

For Duncan, a transgender woman who was born as a man, it’s about fairness.

“Our community is not asking for anything more than what everyone else enjoys everyday,” she said.

Marla Hough, a Tiger Bay member, asked Duncan and Hamm to estimate how many people in the population are transgender and why it’s become such a pervasive issue, given the number is so small.

Duncan and Hamm cited research estimating less than half a percent of people are transgender, but Duncan said a true measure would probably between 2 or 3 percent of the population. The emotional aspect of the issue is why it gained so much attention, they agreed.

“It’s got teeth. It’s got traction,” Hamm said.

“This is a wedge issue that can cause people to have serious emotions,” Duncan said.

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Tiger Bay panelists: Transgender issue transcends bathrooms."