It
seems we’re in for some pre-emptive political action, as Mayor Rahm Emanuel
this week had an ordinance introduced to make it clear that Chicago has no
problem with the concept of gender-less restrooms.
As in ones that can be used by either men or women, or those individuals who are confused about what their orientation is.
PERSONALLY,
I DON’T see the big deal; except that some people are determined to use “the
law” as a way to harass those individuals who aren’t exactly like themselves.
Which
is the motivation of states that have gone out of their way to pass laws that
would require people who may have changed their gender to use the restroom
appropriate to their gender of birth.
So
all that Emanuel has in mind in terms of pushing this ordinance that would
forbid entities from restricting restroom use based on gender is trying to show
that we’re not Mississippi or North Carolina or Georgia.
A
fact I’d have thought was already apparent. Or, more importantly for Emanuel,
to get someone on his side without first taking his name in vain!
IN
FACT, I wonder if when this ordinance comes up for debate we’ll get any of the
religiously-inspired hokum about an abomination about to take place, or how our
daughters are going to be at risk by being in the same rest room as some
pervert man who wants to pretend he’s a woman.
I’d
hope that Chicagoans would have enough sense to ignore such nonsense talk. That
in fact we’d present a political environment in which people who spout such
trash talk would not be made to feel comfortable.
Of
course, then they’ll complain they’re the ones being discriminated against
because we’re refusing to legitimize their own efforts to write discriminatory
behavior into our municipal code.
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| EMANUEL: He wants somebody on his side |
They
likely will even be the ones who will believe they want to “make America great”
by restoring the old days when certain people had to face harassment in their
daily lives.
YEAH,
FOR ALL I know they’ll wind up being the minority of Chicagoans who will back
the Donald Trump presidential aspirations – even though Trump himself has
called out as nonsense this very issue.
Perhaps
as a big-city type he realizes that people are people, and anyone insistent on
preserving older ways of thought are the real problem our society faces.
As
I started to say earlier, I really don’t comprehend why this issue has to be
controversial – except that some people have the ability to over-complicate
everything.
Just
the other day when I was at a Jewel supermarket, I happened to walk past the
public restrooms when an older man in need of a urinal seemed confused.
HE
COULDN’T FIGURE out which of the two rooms he could use. As it turns out, both
rooms were built for single occupancy and had doors that locked behind their
user. Meaning that either a man or a woman could use either room, depending on
need.
Somehow,
I think if my neighborhood supermarket (and something as Chicago-oriented as “da
Jewels”) is capable of figuring out how to implement a unisex restroom without
bringing down society, it ought to be capable of achievement by other entities.
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| SIRICO: The world according to Paulie Walnuts |
Let’s
hope a level of sense prevails when the City Council’s Human Relations
Committee reviews the issue. Then again, presuming that common sense will prevail in the halls of City Hall is always a risky gesture.
We could easily get a level of conversation that devolves down to the level of “The
Sopranos,” where actor Tony Sirico’s “Paulie Gualtieri” character told us the
essential difference between men’s and women’s restrooms – the former were
disgusting while the latter were clean and sterile enough you could eat off the
floor.
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