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STAY In The NEws

Letcher County Youth Take a Stand Against Proposed Discriminatory Bathroom Ordinance

5/19/2016

12 Comments

 
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Whitesburg, KY--Young leaders from Letcher County, Kentucky responded quickly to an announcement Wednesday that the Letcher County Fiscal Court will be proposing an ordinance stating that Letcher County will not comply with any law that opens public restrooms to transgendered people. 
​
According to the Whitesburg Mountain Eagle, District One Magistrate Bobby Howard  told the court Monday night that many of his constituents are outraged by the federal government’s lawsuit against North Carolina as well as a directive by President Barack Obama’s administration that public schools must allow students to use facilities consistent with their gender identity.
Howard insisted the fiscal court initiate an ordinance stating that Letcher County will not comply with any law that opens public restrooms to transgendered people. ​

Read below and share a letter drafted by youth from Letcher County , and contact the Letcher County Fiscal Court and let them know you sand against this act of violence against the transgender community in Eastern Kentucky. Two of the authors will hand deliver this letter during the fiscal court meeting tomorrow in Whitesburg.


May 19th, 2016

Dear Letcher County Fiscal Court,

We are a collection of young leaders, most of us in high school, who have lived and grown up in this county. We are writing to address the bathroom ordinance that you are proposing to pass in our county. It is our expectation that you will seriously consider our address as community members and leaders of this county and region.

This policy does not reflect the community we have lived and grown up in. People in a community are supposed to help their fellow community members and this ordinance does the opposite, going a long way just to suppress a particular group of its citizens.We are a community built on love, trust and mutual support, yet none of those values are present in this ordinance.

Beginning with North Carolina’s HB2, the topic of transgender individuals has recently been pushed into a very public light — a light shining mainly in other places. Upon hearing news of a very hastily made decision to impose such an ordinance, many of us in the area were alarmed and appalled. Never before has this been an issue and it's likely to never become one. Why are key members of our local government suddenly frightened?  The transgender community here is small to begin with, and those folks have been sharing restrooms for years. In fact, most of our restaurants and businesses offer only a single stall for each gendered restroom.  Just because a topic is an attention-grabbing headline on a national scale, doesn’t mean we should jump on the bandwagon. The last thing the county needs is irrationally based, bigoted viewpoints on our public bathrooms.

To those who say that citizens would use a flexible restroom policy to prey on children, there has not been one documented case of a transgendered person doing so. However, a woman in Connecticut was attacked just this week because people mistook her for being transgendered. This is a law that encourages hate and fear toward transgender citizens.

How would our county enforce this discriminatory law?  Would everyone in Letcher County need to carry their birth certificate and feel the threat of personal inspections just for the right to use a restroom? Would funds from the Fiscal Court be allocated to an appointed bathroom-checking official? This brings us to a major question: why are we spending local government time and resources on this ordinance in the first place? There is no precedent for an ordinance, as there is no immediate conflict or history of which in our county that this would solve. We are an economically distressed county with Promise Zone designation that can’t even afford to keep our community centers and recycling center open. We are in an area that is on the brink of suffering a potential HIV epidemic from intravenous substance abuse. We are also in the midst of an economic transition that would not only benefit our county, but our entire region if we focus on making wise decisions now. We have real, urgent concerns facing our community right now, and a cheap political tactic based in fear and not in evidence should not be prioritized over those concerns.

We as youth leaders of Letcher County strongly recommend that the Fiscal Court reconsiders its stance on a highly controversial, highly discriminatory and highly unnecessary act of systemic violence towards transgender members of our community. We strongly recommend that the Fiscal Court instead shifts its priorities towards a plan for our county — all of our county — to flourish socially, economically, responsibly and fairly. We want a local governing body that will work for us all, because we believe in a #WhitesburgForAll, a #LetcherCountyForAll and an #AppalachiaForAll.

Signed,
​

The Young Leaders of Letcher County
12 Comments
Ryan Adams
5/19/2016 12:26:20 pm

I could not agree more.

Reply
Kate Fowler
5/19/2016 12:39:15 pm

Beyond proud of these amazingly strong, talented and kind young folk. We're fortunate to have them to lead the way and to have Willa!

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Kelli Haywood
5/19/2016 12:55:03 pm

Thank you for lending your voices to this issue. You are the future of this community and your opinion should be integral in deciding how we build the community from here. I hope they take this seriously.

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Chris Adams
5/19/2016 01:42:21 pm

Glad to see the future generation has some sense. Don't give up.

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Sue Greer-Pitt link
5/19/2016 01:56:15 pm

I fully support these young leaders of Letcher County for taking a stand for inclusiveness and against discrimination.

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Peggy Caudill
5/19/2016 03:39:10 pm

Totally agree. Let's focus on the more pertinent problems in the area. Let's stand togetger. Not let ignorance tear us apart.

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Dana Courtney
5/19/2016 03:53:36 pm

Congratulations to the youth with courage. I hope those who are concerned about the matter will read the laws (in NC HB2) and will see the protections that are lost due to the law - including the right of local governments to pass policies, the right of those who are fired for no good reason to sue in state courts and much more - these rights, not to mention those of transgender people to be safe in using facilities the rest of us take as a right without question. This "bathroom" bill is not about protecting "our women and children" in bathrooms. Women and children need to be protected from sexual assaults by those they often know in their usual comings and goings.

Reply
Sheena Falter
5/19/2016 05:29:38 pm

I am overjoyed to see the intelligence of our youth!

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Ron Day
5/19/2016 06:21:09 pm

Good thing, youth leaders of Letcher County. Your presence promises a positive future for Letcher Co. and the Commonwealth.

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Shannon Potter
5/19/2016 07:28:16 pm

We all must take a stand when our families are having to move from the only place that they have called home their whole lives.Because we have no jobs local.They need to be worried about more important things.Like how they are gonna build up our county and help their own grow and prosper.I hate to tell them all but Transgender people didn't just start being on this earth since this whole bathroom ignorance has started.We all need to love and care for each other and help our own community grow and welcome ALL people.

Reply
Sam Adams
5/19/2016 09:30:17 pm

Our county is broke, the senior citizens centers have closed, we have roads you can't drive over, and apparently our fiscal court would rather play around with a bathroom bill and pick a legal fight with the federal government than actually address our problems. Who is going to pay the court costs? I swear, these people ought to have better ways to spend their time and our money.

Reply
Janet Kenworthy link
5/21/2016 10:39:32 pm

Thank you lLecher County. I grew up in Fayette county.You make me proud of the bluegrass state.

Reply



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