To the editor: The article on the concerted, puerile and tacky remedy of Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.) introduced again recollections of my expertise in 1994 as the primary overtly homosexual or lesbian member elected to the California Meeting. (“Democrats rally behind first out transgender member of Congress, decry Republican attacks,” Nov. 23)
Once I introduced a invoice to guard LGBTQ+ college students from harassment, violence and discrimination in California faculties, I used to be pilloried by my Republican “colleagues” because the spawn of the satan and an “unnatural” human being. These remarks had been delivered on the ground by members variously wearing man-size Boy Scout uniforms and lederhosen — I child you not.
Happily, as with McBride, I had the robust and heat assist of my Democratic colleagues, who would drift over to my seat throughout these tirades and place a hand on my shoulder. It was this assist and friendship that acquired me via these days.
Maybe, as embarrassing because it is likely to be, a number of girls members would possibly simply resolve to go to the U.S. Capitol toilet concurrently McBride to make sure she is unassailed. I at all times discovered the reply to a loopy or hurtful rule is solely “no.”
Sheila Kuehl, Santa Monica
The author served as a California Meeting member, state senator and member of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.
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To the editor: Girls who’ve been first via the door — into the boardroom, navy, workshop or different male-dominated office — know McBride’s discomfort. There’s a goal in your again since you are totally different.
It’s a problem to be the primary, and it’s an honor. We simply carry a heavier pack.
No historical past books will bear in mind Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who satirically was chosen to guide this toilet cost as a result of she is a lady. McBride will likely be on the prime of her record ceaselessly. Historical past will bear in mind her braveness.
Denise M. Hoppess, San Diego
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To the editor: Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said that “girls deserve girls’s-only areas.”
I ponder if he has ever been inside a girls’s restroom. If he has, he would have observed there are non-public cubicles in all of them and no open urinals.
Actually, in a number of newly constructed buildings I’ve been in (together with a synagogue), there aren’t any separate males’s and ladies’s restrooms. Somewhat, there are lengthy strains of personal cubicles for use by any gender and a shared row of sinks outdoors.
I don’t learn about Johnson, however I don’t thoughts washing my arms subsequent to a person after having my “girls’s-only” area in a cubicle. No less than I’d know he’s washing his arms.
Barbara Rosen, Fullerton
