Savannah Tolerance Summit lays groundwork for dialogue, change

Posted: August 2, 2012 - 11:08pm

In a Civic Center ballroom filled more with strangers than friends Thursday, Whitney Anderson helped create a better understanding of what it’s like to be discriminated against and fearful on a daily basis.

What she’s hoping for is a citywide effort, if not a state one, to help end it.

Anderson is a transgender woman. She rose from the audience at the city of Savannah’s first Tolerance Summit to explain that current federal, state and local laws don’t offer any protection, either because there are no local or state laws in place or federal ones do not offer protection for gender identity.

“If I have to use the bathroom here in Savannah, there’s a fear that the police will storm the place and drag me out and accuse me of being a pervert,” she said, referring to the sweeps some departments do of restrooms. “I have been thrown out of doctor’s offices, I have been refused housing, I have been denied jobs and there’s nothing illegal about it.”

Federal officials, part of the panel discussion, agreed that many of Anderson’s assertions are true because civil rights laws passed in the ’60s didn’t anticipate gender identity as a discriminated class. When she asked why something can’t be done now to change that, they encouraged her to seek action from state legislators.

She prefers to rely on the city of Savannah and the chances that residents, in a referendum, would vote to make such discrimination illegal.

The two-part summit helped explain the guidelines for determining what is a hate crime under federal law and called on the nearly 300 people attending to begin discussing how they could take action to make the city more tolerant and united.

Three components are needed to classify an attack as a hate crime, said Larry Greene, senior supervisory agent of the Savannah office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. There must be the threat of force, it must be motivated by federally protected characteristics, such as race or religion, and the action must interfere with protected federal activities, such as the right to attend school or travel an interstate highway.

The summit is an outgrowth of meetings with Savannah-Chatham police, community leaders and U.S. Department of Justice officials after a 2010 incident in which two Marines were charged for punching a gay man in the head.

Georgia didn’t have a hate crimes law then and still doesn’t.

Pam Miller, who helped organize the event as a member of the Savannah Gay and Lesbian Community Police Collaborative, hopes the summit could change that, based partly on Thursday’s turnout.

“I’m not surprised by it (the participation),” she said. “As a gay woman, I can tell you Savannah has always been a welcoming community. If you have a good idea and want it to happen, Savannah is so receptive.”

David Pleasant isn’t sure it will be that simple. There are structural questions about why slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws and selective police enforcement are part of American history.

Hope can always be found from people willing to talk about discrimination, he said, but it needs more than one night of thought.

“The victims of violence,” he said, “are thinking about it all the time.”

Comments (13) Add comment
Lawrence Marley
Lawrence Marley 08/03/12 - 08:53 am
Anonymous Potshots always a Hoot!

Any efffort in Savannah to create venues of communication between diverse groups is welcome by me. I have little respect for naysayers brave enough to name others in their opinions while hiding behind the skirts of their own anonymity.

Duncan Idaho
Duncan Idaho 08/03/12 - 09:15 am

Keep posting here with your actual name, Pilgrim. Get back to us in about 6 months with how that worked out.

passerby45 08/03/12 - 03:37 pm
Im sorry but if a man

trying to be a women walks in on my wife and she freaks because there is a man in the bathroom. Well lets just say I wont be quiet about the issue. If anyone can change their gender with out blinking an eye well what else would they do? Don't trust them and find them to be creepy to look at or be around. I seen one the other day and with his Adams apple being 3 inches I called him sir. He flipped out and started with his I'm a women. RLMAO I hated to break it to him but NO HE WAS AND IS A MAN!!! Just because you add boobs( which that doesn't count because I know many men that have man boobs) and grow long hair doesn't make me think you are a women. So cut all you want you will still be a freak in society and that will never change. No matter how many tolerance summits they have. Also I guess it doesn't bother them that the Muslim religion thinks they all should be thrown off a bridge. I guess that's a fight they know they cant win.

wthomas76 08/04/12 - 09:49 am
Let me see if I understand this

Whitney Anderson who is a trangender woman (which means he is really a man) is upset that our laws do not allow him to use the woman's bathroom. I guess someone needs to tell him that just because you like to play dress up it does not make you a woman. Was tax payer money used for this ridiculous conference?

Geechee 08/04/12 - 07:32 pm
I suppose ...

... every business, private and public facility in the country now needs three rest rooms per Whitney Anderson. His, hers and Whatever.

Ransomed Tyrant
Ransomed Tyrant 08/04/12 - 08:14 pm
One of those ...

whatevers walks in on my wife or me while she or I is in a restroom he/she/it will crawl out totally neutered. Call me insensitive and intolerate if you wish.

goldilocks 08/04/12 - 08:16 pm
That is scary, because a man

That is scary, because a man can say he is a woman just to be allowed into the ladies restroom, for other ill intents. I don't like it.
I feel sorry for people that have an identity crisis, however just stay out of the ladies restroom. Use the men's.

goldilocks 08/04/12 - 08:21 pm
Will they air the Savannah

Will they air the Savannah Tolerance Summit?

John T
John T 08/04/12 - 11:27 pm
No easy solution

Many of the comments here confirm that gender discrimination and stereotypes still exist. So is anyone surprised that discrimination exists against the LGBT community? Let me break the bad news to the Mayor. You're not going to find any solutions in your tolerance summit because people are not tolerant when they feel their privacy, safety and personal space are threatened. It really is that simple. I will also let you in on a little secret. Threaten the privacy, safety, or personal space of someone's family member, especially a child, and you will have a whole new fight on your hands.

Need an example? As a heterosexual man, if I walk into the women's bathroom at city hall, I would get arrested simply because our society has a stereotypically discriminatory opinion that I am a sexual aggressor and pervert. There is a perceived threat so the law discriminates against me. Where's the tolerance? If I claimed to be gay or transgender, would I be entitled to tolerance then? Would I have to prove I'm gay or transgender? Would that then exempt me from the sexual aggressor stereotype?

Every man in this country tolerates and suffers from gender discrimination because it is safer to assume we are all sexual aggressors and a threat to women. However, if the same reasoning and discrimination is applied when a lesbian walks into the girl's shower, then society is being intolerant. And could someone please explain to me how society reasons that a gay man is not considered to be sexually aggressive? Or why straight men deserve any less protection of their privacy?

Gender discrimination is not only accepted, it is also legal because it seeks to protect the privacy, safety and personal space of women. If you're not willing to end that discrimination, then how can you ask ayone to denounce LGBT intolerance and discrimination?

Webster's defines homophobia as the irrational hatred or fear of homosexuals or homosexuality. Webster's does not list or define "heterophobia," but perhaps it should.

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