A new ad from FairnessUSA explains why it’s dangerous to force transgender people to use the wrong restroom.
Even as the nation mourns the deaths of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Philando Castile in a suburb of Minneapolis and Officers Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarippa, Michael Krol, Michael Smith and Lorne Ahrens in Dallas, right-wing anti-LGBT forces continue to ignore the need to address the systemic racism at the root of the violence and instead focus their efforts on making sure LGBT people don’t have equal protection and transgender people can’t pee in public.
Tomorrow (Tuesday, July 12), one month to the day after 49 people were murdered in an Orlando gay bar in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing on the First Amendment Defense Act, which would allow individuals, many businesses and nonprofit organizations to legally discriminate against LGBT people. It would, for instance, allow a privately-owned business to refuse to let an employee take time off to care for a same-sex spouse who was ill. It would also eliminate many of the protections for LGBT people enacted under the Obama administration
Donald Trump, presumptive GOP nominee, supports the measure, of course.
But there are those who are fighting back against the hate. FairnessUSA — a joint project of Freedom for All Americans Education, Fund, the Movement Advancement Project, the National Center for Transgender Equality and Equality Ohio Education Fund — will be airing a new ad depicting challenges faced by transgender people accessing public restrooms during both the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention.
The ad, which you can watch below, will have its national TV debut on Fox News Channel on Thursday, July 21, during the final night of the RNC in Cleveland. It will air nationwide again on MSNBC during the DNC in Philadelphia.