Have any of you Mesa County residents out there been molested by a homosexual or transgendered person during a visit to a public restroom over the past month? If so, you're apparently the first to suffer a fate our protectors at Focus on the Family warned about in relation to a bill Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed into law at the end of May.
That measure, Senate Bill 200, sponsored by Senator Jennifer Veiga, a Denver Democrat, was intended to make the state's laws apply to those discriminated against for reasons of sexual orientation. Sound reasonable? Not to Focus frontman James Dobson, who railed against the legislation for a variety of reasons cited in a May 29 Denver Post article, including his contention that the proposal was designed to give the homosexual and transgender community "access to all public restrooms" used by "people of the opposite gender." The Post added that other critics of the bill feared its passage would result in "exposing children and women to sexual predators."
Apparently not so far. According to Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger, who's quoted in a June 26 piece in The Daily Sentinel, nothing nasty has taken place in area lavatories in the past four weeks (beyond what's supposed to happen there, that is). "To the best of my knowledge, we have seen zero impact" regarding the new law, he said.
Nevertheleless, Laura Bradford, who's running for a House seat in District 55 against incumbent Rep. Bernie Buescher, a Democrat, apparently still feels there's value in trying to terrify voters over the prospect of unauthorized privates fondling any time they dare to relieve themselves at a public facility. "Transgender bathrooms are just not a good idea," she told the Sentinel.
Since Bradford and Dobson clearly share common concerns, they should probably get together to talk about them. Just not you-know-where. -- Michael Roberts
