If you want to know more about transgenderism, go to the Midtown Clinic and speak with medical professionals, Mercedes Curran said to the Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday night, targeting at least one Assemblywoman and members of the public who used the term “biological man or woman” during a recent Assembly meeting.
Curran, lecturing the Assembly and public in an angry tone, said the term “biological man or woman” is damaging. She is a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
“Determining gender purely by the basis of biological sex is not as clearcut as one could think. The chromosomes, testosterone levels, the anatomical features arguments don’t hold weight, not with all the research that is out there that shows otherwise,” she said. “Go get current, get educated. Maybe talk to the members of the trans and queer community and listen.”
“There is no excuse to continue to spread harmful information and hateful ideology,” she said. She said there is no reason any woman, trans or otherwise, should be turned away from a shelter and that trans women were a protected class and that to turn away biological males is unAmerican, unAlaskan, and unconstitutional.
She was responding to the debate about whether transgendered men-to-women can be prevented from entering shelters for women. The Hope Center in Downtown Anchorage only admits biological women, and has said these women clients are highly traumatized by men and should not be forced to sleep next to men.
In May, the Anchorage Assembly, on a vote of 8-2, passed an ordinance that revised Anchorage Municipal Code Title 5, the Equal Rights section, to prohibit women’s shelters from barring men who say they are women.
At the same time, the Assembly is funding a shelter for transgender people called “Choosing Our Roots” using federal Covid relief funds.
“Any rhetoric protecting real women is just bigoted dog-whistling that intends to fear-monger and dehumanize one of the most vulnerable populations in our community. Trans women are real women, whether you like it or not, no matter what you say in your echo chamber.”
It was yet another contribution in an ongoing national conversation about who may use women’s bathrooms, women’s locker rooms and whether boys can “identify” as girls and compete against girls in sports.
“Get used to it,” Curran said during her three minutes at the podium. The Assembly had no questions for her.
