Image Credit: Mountain Arts Community Center / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
Signal Mountain residents told Town Council members last week that they wanted a new “gender neutral” sign removed from a restroom door at the Mountain Arts Community Center.
The sign, which features symbols representing various genders, says, “This restroom may be used by any person regardless of gender identity or expression.”
Residents say the sign “complicates” and “divides” and is unnecessary as it was placed directly under the already gender-neutral existing sign which reads, “Toilet.”
Others expressed concern that children would find the sign confusing and that it is inappropriate and does not align with the town’s conservative values.
“Having the sign with the transgender symbol and the transgender expression language in a highly visible area, immediately to the left when you walk in the front doors, in a place where camps, lessons and events are geared heavily toward children, is unacceptable,” said one resident.
The building, formerly home to Signal Mountain Elementary, is leased from the town at a highly discounted rate by nonprofit organization Signal Mountain Elementary Preservation Fund, which runs the community center.
Some residents believe the addition of the sign is a political move that will push some people from supporting the center, forcing them to “decide between supporting a leftist organization that’s pushing an unnecessary agenda on our children versus driving down the mountain and finding alternative options that don’t subtly indoctrinate our children.”
The council was asked to consider a portion of the lease agreement that reads, “the town and tenant will cooperate and communicate on the management and status of all building structures, improvements, fixtures and equipment located on the premises and on all maintenance repairs, alterations, upgrades and improvements to the premises.”
Mayor Charles Poss noted that the sign was actually placed on the restroom door by the nonprofit organization and not the town.
According to Cheryl Graham, co-director of the Mountain Arts Community Center, the sign was put up about a month ago because volunteers wanted to designate a restroom that could be used by performers during theatre performances.
Because the restroom was small, it could not be converted into a handicapped restroom or a family restroom, so Graham selected the “gender neutral” signage, believing it to be “inclusive.”
“This fits what we’re trying to say here, which is, ‘We are a community center, and as such, we welcome the entire community,'” Graham said.
Vice Mayor Elizabeth Baker asked the city attorney to provide an opinion on what the council can legally do after conducting research on the issue.
One Response
Judging from the campaign commercials that were ru n by the GOP during the primary election season, you would have to conclude that the single most serious, existential threat to the United States was ….. transgender Americans.
Fact is, transgender and nonbinary people have just as much right to use public restoom as you do. If you identify as a woman, dress and makeup and do your hair like a woman, and do your best to PASS as a woman, you use the women’t restroom. Likewise, if you identify as a man, and do your best to pass as a man in appearance, you user the men’s restroom. And if you REALLY have a problem with that, is it really asking too much to provide for private, gender-neutral restroom?
I mean, what else are you going to do, require ANYONE who wants to use a public restroom to submit to a genital examination firstr?