In this day and age, when the Left has gone crazy over ensuring that transgenders – less than one third of one percent of America’s population – have free reign over our bathrooms, it’s refreshing to see a liberal who hasn’t joined her fellow travelers going off the deep end.
In this case, I’m talking about Maya Dillard Smith, who is resigning as leader of the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union over her concerns about the organization’s increasing emphasis on transgender issues, especially in light of President Obama’s executive order regarding transgender bathroom use in public schools. She stated that the ACLU has become “a special interest organization that promotes not all, but certain progressive rights.”
Dillard Smith came to her discomfort with the emphasis on opening too many doors for transgender persons when she took her daughters to a public restroom.
“I have shared my personal experience of having taken my elementary school-age daughters into a women’s restroom when, shortly after, three transgender young adults, over six feet [tall] with deep voices entered,” Smith told Life Site News.
Dillard Smith, 37, said her young children were “frightened” by the ordeal and “concerned about their safety and left asking lots of questions for which I, like many parents, was ill-prepared to answer.”
Dillard Smith also noted that the emphasis on the transgender community undermines the rights of other people that the ACLU has fought for years to protect.
The former ACLU executive, who described herself as “progressive” and “unapologetically black,” suggested the organization leaves no room for discussion about the difficulties that come with making accommodations for the transgender community.
“I found myself principally and philosophically unaligned with the organization,” Dillard Smith said.
“I understood it to be the ACLU’s goal to delicately balance competing rights to ensure that any infringements are narrowly tailored, that they do not create a hierarchy of rights, and that we are mindful of unintended consequences,” she added.
Dillard Smith has already began looking at ways to tackles some of these issues in a more sensible way. She has put together a new website, Finding Middle Ground, that seeks to address these concerns in a way that protects both sides. The website features a video with a young girl talking about how her rights are as worthy of protecting as those of transgender individuals.
“How can we ask these kinds of questions without being called a homophobe?” the video asks. “How do we prevent predators from preying on kids in bathrooms?”
The video features a little girl explaining that she does not want transgender people to be “uncomfortable,” but asks, “What about me, too?”
The departure of Dillard Smith leaves the ACLU lacking in the diversity department, as she served as the highest ranking official in Georgia – the youngest executive nationwide as of 2015 – and one of only three black directors in the national organization.
And, not surprisingly, Dillard Smith has begun to encounter backlash from the LGBT community.
A transgender activist, a biological male who goes by the name Cheryl Courtney-Evans, responded to the resignation by calling Dillard Smith “lazy,” “ill-educated,” and a “b–ch” who needs to sit down and “STFU.”
“What am I doing in a men’s room looking as luscious as I am, putting myself in danger?” the transgender activist asked.
Although Maya Dillard Smith hasn’t exactly begun a transition to the Right, it will be interesting to watch and see how much she and Finding Middle Ground will be able to advance the conversation about “safe spaces” in a way that will make families feel as comfortable and at ease as the ACLU wants to make transgender people. Here’s hoping she can persuade others to consider how we can protect our daughters, nieces, and granddaughters.
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