Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Friday excoriated the Charlotte Observer for running an editorial telling school-aged girls to overcome their “discomfort” of seeing “male genitalia” in locker rooms, should transgender bathroom laws be enacted.
Mr. Limbaugh accused the newspaper of hypocrisy, noting the Observer’s staunch advocacy when it comes to victims of sexual assault on college campuses.
“So you young women — you girls and adult women — who are being told every day by people like the Charlotte Observer that you are likely to be raped on any American college campus you choose, are now being told, ’Get over your fear of the male genitalia if you happen to spot it in a bathroom,’” he said.
Mr. Limbaugh said transgender bathroom access is not about civil rights, but rather “blowing up centuries of tradition” and the culture upon which America was founded.
“Everybody knows this is just yet another vehicle that extreme liberals are using to undermine and overthrow and transform the founding culture of the United States,” he said.
“It’s not civil rights,” Mr. Limbaugh continued. “People aren’t going to bat for one-tenth of one percent of the population here from a civil rights standpoint. This is called blowing up centuries of tradition. The same thing with gay marriage.”
The radio host also pointed out that the Charlotte Observer reportedly sat on information regarding former Charlotte LGBT Chamber of Commerce president Chad Sevearance-Turner, a leading proponent of transgender bathroom access in the state who is also a convicted sex offender.
“And the Charlotte Observer apparently knew and never mentioned it until a bunch of bloggers forced them to, to admit that they knew that’s who was pushing this,” Mr. Limbaugh said.
Mr. Limbaugh advocated creating unisex, single-stall restrooms to solve the problem, but predicted that that would never happen.
“The notion that idea is rejected ought to tell everybody what’s actually going on here, or at least give everybody some indication,” he argued.
The Charlotte Observer ran an editorial last week comparing the “discomfort” of school-aged girls seeing “male genitalia” to the discomfort experienced by white people around black people in post-segregation America.
“Yes, the thought of male genitalia in girls’ locker rooms – and vice versa – might be distressing to some,” the editorial board conceded, “But the battle for equality has always been in part about overcoming discomfort – with blacks sharing facilities, with gays sharing marriage – then realizing that it was not nearly so awful as some people imagined.”
President Obama issued a mandate last week potentially withholding federal education funding from public schools nationwide that do not permit bathroom and locker room access on the basis of gender identity.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against North Carolina earlier this month, challenging a state law regulating public bathroom use on the basis of biological sex, which the agency said violates federal civil rights law.
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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