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Cleveland City Council is considering a transgender-inclusive bathroom and locker room ordinance that has thrown this population into the public spotlight. It has also generated some positive dialogue about the discrimination transgender people face -- as well as some understandable concerns - and, sadly, some fear and loathing. (Marvin Fong)

(Marvin Fong)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- We need to talk about transgender people -- those who identify with a gender that differs from their sex at birth.

Cleveland Councilmen Joe Cimperman and Matt Zone's proposed transgender-inclusive bathroom and locker room ordinance has thrown this population into the public spotlight. That has generated some positive dialogue about the discrimination they face -- as well as some understandable concerns – and, sadly, some fear and loathing.

If Cleveland is ever going to live up to its hype as a progressive and welcoming city, then city leaders, activists working on behalf of transgender people and the media need to give the ordinance attention -- even if doing so makes people on all sides of the issue uncomfortable.

On Wednesday, Cimperman and Zone will hold a hearing on a couple of ordinances intended to update the city's existing anti-discrimination laws to include the transgender community. One change would prohibit city contractors from discriminating against transgender people.

But the "public accommodations" proposal is the controversial one. It aims to prevent Cleveland businesses from dictating which restrooms and locker rooms a person may use.

Supporters say, "It simply allows a person to use the bathroom that matches the gender they live every day."

The problem is no law is ever that simple, and the broad ordinance leaves a lot to the imagination. Here's why. The only way the ordinance can work is to require businesses to make their restrooms, showers and locker rooms available to both sexes -- no questions asked.

This raises fears, some unfounded, some not.

Will the ordinance, for instance, open the door for perverts and creeps to step into the opposite sex's bathroom? Does the ordinance make it more likely that a young girl will see male anatomy in the women's restroom or locker room (or vice versa)? I'll address these in a moment.

Since Northeast Ohio Media Group reporter Leila Atassi first reported the proposal was headed to committee, people on both sides of proposal have reacted badly. Some proponents criticized Atassi on social media for asking about potential unintended consequences. Some were darn right nasty, calling her a bigot and demanding she be fired. That hardly seems like a productive tactic in a campaign that's supposed to be about educating the public.

Predictably, some opponents went nuts and tried to rally extremists against the ordinance and Cimperman and Zone.

"The fact that the radical regressive Democratic left, continues to use gay and transgender citizens to advance their anti-American, anti-liberty, anti-religious agenda is just beyond the pale," Tom Zawistowski, president of We the People Convention, wrote in an email to his conservative supporters.

I'll spare you the rest, but Zawistowski goes on to argue that society is headed for chaos if such proposals and councilmen Cimperman and Zone go unchecked.

For a more rational perspective, I turned to attorney Kylar Broadus, director of the Transgender Civil Rights Project at the National LGBTQ Task Force.

Broadus has followed the impact of similar laws around the country. As a transgender man -- he was born with a female anatomy but lives as a man -- he has frontline experience. And he is not offended by the questions.

Broadus said fear drives the worst-case-scenario reaction to the legislation. But he said that more than 150 communities have similar laws on the books and they have not seen an increase in bathroom-related crimes. (Beyond a couple of isolated cases, there's little evidence available, at least on the Internet, to contradict Broadus.)

Fifteen states and Washington, D.C., prohibit discrimination in public accommodations on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, according to USA Today.

Broadus and others point out that transgender laws do not negate laws that make it illegal to enter a restroom to harass or invade the privacy of others.

I'd like to hear the council committee discuss whether Cleveland's new law could complicate enforcement of the existing laws.

Broadus said public accommodations laws provide a legal protection to transgender people, but they are unlikely to have any practical influence on our bathroom routines.

"We have to get out of mindset that someone is going into the bathroom to attack," Broadus said. "People go into the bathroom to do their business and get out."

I asked him about a couple of scenarios, including one where young children could be exposed to body parts of the opposite sex, especially in a locker room. Parents have every right to wonder, since it's their right to discuss body differences with their children on their own terms.

Broadus dismisses such worries, arguing that transgender people are not exhibitionists.

"Trans people are more likely hiding their body – not flashing," he said. "Many have body issues."

Zoe Lapin, who lives and works in Cleveland, plans to testify in support of the ordinance at Wednesday's council hearing.

A transgender woman (born with male anatomy but lives as a woman), she has been told to use a men's room in the past, which she said subjected her to harassment.

"It is extremely uncomfortable and jeopardizes your safety," Lapin said.

Lapin said that she never has faced scrutiny in a women's restroom. Her interaction with other patrons has been along the lines of "traditional banter."

"If we do strike up a conversation, they ask what makeup I use," Lapin said.

In the summer, Lapin and others circulated postcards in Cleveland neighborhoods about the ordinance and urged residents to send the cards to their council member. She says she found tremendous support for the ordinance. Some 1,200 postcards were mailed to council members, she said.

I have no doubt many people support the spirit of the law, that of giving transgender men and women the right to use a bathroom or shower that makes them most comfortable. But those supporters need to address – rather than shout down – people with concerns about the letter of the law and its implications. And that's the point council should clarify during its hearing if it wants to win acceptance from the public for transgender people.

Click here for glossary of terms related to the transgender community.