As is so often the case, Alaska Family Council president Jim Minnery has a lot of explaining to do.
The arch-conservative nonprofit, which bills itself as a “statewide, pro-family public policy organization,” is currently pushing a ballot initiative headed to Anchorage voters in April. It's aim is to roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender Alaskans adopted in 2015. If approved, the “Protect Our Privacy” initiative would would redefine “sex” to mean “an individual’s immutable biological condition of being male or female, as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at the time of birth.”
This could be verified and regulated by private and public officials overseeing access to restrooms and locker rooms according to an individual’s gender as identified on their original birth certificate. It's what is known as a “bathroom bill,” a regressive policy aimed at intimidation. Imagine it as a type of universal card check, except verification requires you to drop your drawers and see if your plumbing satisfies whoever is enforcing the rules. If you don't make a habit of bringing your birth certificate along every time you have to pee, you might be turned away.
Several states have entertained such proposals. North Carolina is the lone example where legislation has passed. It was partially repealed after dozens of businesses and the NCAA threatened to find a new venue to conduct business. The Associated Press estimated in March that the state would have lost $3.76 billion over 12 years had it remained intact. Now, Minnery wants to try that here. As he did while opposing anti-discrimination efforts in 2009 and 2012, he has returned to his familiar strategy of fear mongering; turning the issue into a cautionary tale of endangered children falling prey to cross-dressing sexual predators (who don't exist and would be violating the law if they did) lurking in bathroom stalls.
Last Thursday, the group posted a meme to Facebook. The advert featured a picture of a trans woman next to a little girl. “Should this actual 54 year old biological male who 'self identifies' as a 6 year old girl be allowed to undress in front of this actual 6 yr old, biological girl?” it asks. “Some questions have to be asked,” it reads at the top. The post has been heavily promoted through Facebook ads — and if I'm seeing it, they're casting quite the wide net — has been shared over 30 times and littered with comments. The bulk go like this: “No! Why is this even a question?”
To which I say, it isn't. It's a straw man, a bogeyman, a non sequitur, a gross misrepresentation, a manufactured misunderstanding of gender identity, a deliberate negligence of existing laws against pedophilia, sexual harassment, and sexual violence, and a crude caricature of a real person. Her name is Stefoknee Wolscht and Minnery owes her an apology.
Perusing the comments took me through dozens of links repeating the ominous story; that a grown man decided he was a six year old girl in order to use the women's restroom. From the Daily Caller to InfoWars, the refrain repeated. I was able to track down her name and find her on Twitter. Saturday morning, she called me from her home in Toronto.
“There's a lot of fake videos out there of me,” she told me.
Wolscht identifies as gender queer and a trans woman. In 2009, she was featured in a half hour documentary titled “Living 2 Lives, Dying 1000 Deaths”, which detailed her background and the trauma she has experienced in the time since she discovered she was trans. Her marriage fell apart after her wife gave her an ultimatum: stop being trans or leave. Wolscht's relationship with their seven children suffered.
“I ended up suicidal in the hospital,” she explained. “I lost my home, I lost my business, and I lost my kids.” She bounced around homeless shelters and transitional housing. The medications for depression and anxiety weren't helping. Eventually, she found play therapy – a mental health treatment involving role play. The technique is in wide use by health professionals and is popular for its abilities to help people express feelings they otherwise would not feel comfortable expressing. “I started play therapy to escape the responsibility of being an adult, because I wasn't coping.”
“I wasn't delusional. I knew I was 52,” she added with emphasis. She used play therapy with the daughter of close friends, with their consent and oversight, and it helped. She described it more akin to the role of a babysitter. “The thoughts of suicide diminished.... It worked.” But conservative sites picked up the story and turned it into something sexual, she said. By 2014, Woscht had received over 900 death threats and was forced into hiding. Use of her story to promote transphobia are nothing new to Wolscht, but she tries to remain upbeat about it.
“I honestly don't care if they focus on me, because if they're pointing their anger at me, they're not pointing it at some kid who's struggling,” she said. “If that's what they're going to waste their time doing, I'm glad they're picking on me instead of someone else. It goes to prove that transphobia still is extremely real and we need to fight it.”
Minnery made a name for himself in 2012, during the debate over Prop 5, also aimed at codifying equal protections under the law for Anchorage's LGBTQ community. Through the “Protect Your Rights” campaign that successfully opposed that year's initiative, he used crude cartoons depicting cross-dressers and erroneously alleged that a business owner who refused to hire a man dressed in women's clothing could be jailed. He participated in a whisper campaign driving a wedge between the LGBTQ community and African Americans. “'What we're doing is trying to put some truth to the myth' that the two movements -- gay rights and civil rights for blacks -- are aligned,” Alex DeMarban quoted him as saying in the Anchorage Daily News. He warped the message of an op-ed penned by Julia O'Malley to assert that she opposed the anti-discrimination law and felt compelled to take it down when she objected. And, in a last ditch effort on election day, he flat out lied and posted online that Anchorage had same-day voter registration.
This year, he's back stoking fear and hostility against the trans community, but skipped the crass cartoon depictions and found a real person to weaponize in his favor. It's beyond despicable and true to character – but, frankly, isn't even what concerns me the most.
The false meme targeting Wolscht did not happen in a vacuum. When one stares into the abyss we call the Internet, that abyss stares back. Within minutes, people began to comment. The trickle turned into a flood. Many were benign. Dozens took issue with the premise. These elicited a quick response and heavy dose of policing by the Alaska Family Council. “So, what exactly is the context of this meme, and to what end?” one commenter opined, noting the controversy surrounding Alabama senatorial candidate and alleged pedophile, Roy Moore, while wondering aloud if the council's efforts might be better spent addressing real instances of sexual harassment and violence.
“It has nothing to do with Roy Moore [sic] and your little tactic to get off subject doesn't work. This is a real issue today,” the page administrator replied (even though the example of Moore is a legitimate and corroborated instance of sexual violence and the meme about Worscht was entirely manufactured). “Try to stay on topic and off your agenda.”
Similar comments immediately warranted redress by the Alaska Family Council. However, others did not. And I suppose that's what indicates to me the intrinsic necessity of have equal protections in the municipality's laws. A week later, several other comments remain published and unanswered. Comments like one from Will, who wrote, “No, this freak needs therapy and medication not the freedom to change clothes around females.” A few comments down, Vernon said, “That's sick, shooting him would not be a crime[.]” And Bruce concluded, “Burn that thing with fire.”
At the time of writing this on Tuesday night, those comments remain. Online. Unanswered. Unopposed. And very likely seen by other members of the trans community. Maybe some who haven't come out. Maybe some who are young, scared, and vulnerable. Just in time for the observance of National Transgender Day of Remembrance. That is a problem. It's on Minnery's hands. And he should apologize.