Texarkana Voters Reject Radical Transgender Ordinance

Transgender,

Yesterday voters in Texarkana, Arkansas, overwhelmingly voted to repeal a so-called “nondiscrimination” ordinance.

As we have written before, local ordinances like this one carry a number of unintended consequences. Among other things, they threaten to infringe religious liberty, and some of them even inadvertently let men use women’s restrooms, locker rooms, showers, and so on.

In Texarkana, roughly 79.5% of voters voted to repeal the ordinance last night. That’s a huge victory.

The local city Board of Directors approved the ordinance in January, but voters took it upon themselves to repeal the ordinance–and they succeeded.

This vote in Texarkana may partly be backlash against the Obama Administration, which has insisted on rolling out radical, new policies aimed at forcing public schools, colleges, universities, and national parks to let biological males who claim to be female use the women’s restrooms, locker rooms, and shower facilities.

Commonsense may be in short supply in the Obama Administration, but, thankfully, in Texarkana, voters understand radical ordinances like this one simply are bad policy.

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National Park Service: Visitors May Use Restroom of Their Choice

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DeGray_Lake,_ArkansasAccording to The Daily Signal, the Obama Administration’s National Park Service has announced visitors may use the restroom facility of their gender-identity rather than their biological sex.

On the surface, this seems like a fairly insignificant move. As some note, many of the “restrooms” at national parks are more or less out-houses. What’s the big deal?

Well, for starters, larger parks like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon offer shower facilities at their campgrounds.

Under this policy, biological males can enter the women’s shower facilities at these campgrounds. These are places where families with children travel and vacation. This policy arguably puts women and children at risk by giving biological males a legitimate excuse to be present in the women’s shower facilities at these parks.

This decision raises questions about facilities at the Buffalo River in Arkansas, which is managed by the National Park Service. However, an even bigger question is this: If the federal government is going to adopt policies like this one for federal parks, what does that mean for facilities at lakes, parks, and campgrounds operated by the Army Corps of Engineers and by the National Forest Service?

For instance, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates campgrounds at DeGray Lake between Arkadelphia and Hot Springs. Some of those camping facilities include shower houses. Is the Obama Administration going to force the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to adopt a similar policy for restrooms and shower facilities at DeGray Lake and other popular camping locations in Arkansas?

This latest move by the Obama Administration once more puts women and children at risk. It is inexplicable and simply defies logic.

You can read more here.

Photo Credit: Armyman from Malvern, USA (Lake DeGray) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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Target Stock Continues to Tumble Amid Boycott

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Target_Albemarle_Rd_Charlotte,_NC_(7579989322)According to Family Research Council, Target stock continues to reel as Americans boycott the company until it changes its policies announced two months ago concerning restrooms and changing areas in its stores.

FRC writes,

With its profits in the gender-free toilet, Target CEO Brian Cornell was on the hot seat with investors for the decision, which analysts say has cost the retailer more than $4.5 billion — and counting.

Worried about crashing stocks, Cornell was pressed about the negative fallout from the unpopular policy. He insisted (with a straight face) that there was none. “Zero correlation, zero effect,” he declared. That’s a convenient response, but not a truthful one. As everyone on Wall Street knows, Target’s stocks have taken a nearly 20-percent nosedive since April 19, when the change was announced. If there was zero correlation, why are Walmart and online retailers holding steady? Clearly, the boycott — the most successful in American Family Association’s history — is having an enormous impact on Target’s bottom line. But, much like Starbucks’s CEO, who doggedly stuck by his company’s anti-marriage campaign, Cornell made it known that he didn’t care what consumers’ think.

Family Research Council has written extensively about specific cases that demonstrate policies like Target’s can be abused, endangering the safety and privacy of others. You can read their overview here.

The American Family Association is asking Americans to boycott Target. So far, approximately 1.3 million have done so. You can find information about the boycott here.

Photo Credit: By Mike Kalasnik from Fort Mill, USA [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

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