Colleen Francis, and jumping to conclusions

[Guest Jenni_S]

Recently, Colleen Francis made news. She appeared on a local news station in Washington with her story, that she, a transgendered student at Evergreen College, had been discriminated against. She said that she'd been using the women's sauna, and was told to leave by a swimming team coach whose team uses the pool. Police were called, and an incident report filed. Ms. Francis went on to say that the students needed to be informed, and "this is not 1959 Alabama. We don't call the police For drinking from the water fountain."

The story was picked up by transgender blogs, and groups, and another transgender discrimination story began to make its way around the Internet and the national news. A topic here was started, calling out bigots, calling one of the students a name, saying that it was a moment for education, and such. Positions similar were taken by several groups publicly, citing law and discrimination.

It would appear that Ms. Francis was leaving out a few details. The recently released police report can be found here: http://www.adfmedia.org/files/EvergreenPoliceReport.pdf

Note that this wasn't all about the person being transgendered. Hardly that. It mentions "indecent exposure" at the top, and specifically states "The lifeguard (Justin) requested Tiffany to go to the sauna And check it out and she did At which time She observed Colleen sitting with her legs open With her male genitalia showing And Tiffany said to her, 'you need to leave.'"

I don't know about you, but if I were to go in the women's sauna, and discovered someone sitting their with their legs wide open, and showing male genitalia to the whole room, I'd have a problem with it, too. It would appear to me that Ms. Francis is lucky that she was not arrested for indecent exposure. So, is it discrimination? I don't think so. No one has any right to be surprising women in the sauna with "male genitalia," transgender or not. On the contrary, any man caught doing that would be prosecuted immediately. As I said, Ms. Francis should consider herself lucky.

But there's another problem. The transgender blogs, groups, and individuals have already spoken. It was discrimination, bigoted, stupid, wrong for those students to be uncomfortable, and so on. You can't take that back now. The words are out there. Even if you take down the pages with those positions, they're over at Archive.org.

So it turns out the person was exposing their genitals, and this part of the story is also now making the rounds, has been picked up by ABC news, and has the beginnings of another uproar about it. The transgender community has already made its position known, and instead of being able to say, for example, this person is not representative of our community as a whole, has to begin damage control. It won't matter that the community says this person was wrong now, because the opposite has already been said. You can try, but the questions will be raised about why you said what you said in the first place, then.

Where am I going with all of this? Just this. When a charge is made, wait for the whole story. Especially if there are police involved. I understand that discrimination can make your blood boil, and it should. If it really happens. Jumping to that conclusion, based on the story of one individual, can, and as can be seen here, does often backfire and make not the person telling the story wrong, but also the people backing the person up wrong, too.

We ask why can't people accept us. Things like this don't help.

[MaryEllen]

As Paul Harvey used to say, "Now the rest of the story" There are two sides to every story and, unfortunately, we tend to react before we've heard both. This is a prime example of what can happen before we've heard the whole story.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Jenni.

MaryEllen

[Guest KimberlyF]

I remember the topic here and asking what laws were broken that the community was upset about. CF was never kicked out by the school and the school gave CF permission to continue and made all of the others change their actions.

I also wondered who went to the media since CF seemed to win? They didn't win enough or just wanted 15 minutes? It didn't seem right.

This is exactly the kind of case that will be used to stop laws in other areas.

[Drea]

Well Jenni, I guess what you miss here is that the community activists really do think this is appropriate. That the efforts for legal change aren't about addressing the needs of sensitible medically indicated gender role change. Consistaly the push is not for the medical need but is for gender presentation for any reason including bringing one's fetish into the workplace.

It really is a sad state of affairs and it seems like such facts aren't going to change the outrage about discrimination. After all, the police have to have some justification so because it is on the report it means absolutely nothing.

[Carolyn Marie]

It is a challenge sometimes to withhold judgment until all the facts are in. Your point is well taken, Jenni. When I've posted stories about crimes involving TG victims, I've often cautioned about concluding that it was a hate crime, or that the person's TG status was even relevant to the crime. Even the police sometimes jump to that conclusion.

Although I don't have statistics to back me up, I do believe that the percentage of incidents or crimes involving such behavior as allegedly exhibited by Ms. Francis is minute. I also believe it will be trumpeted as proof that none of us are fit to use the gender appropriate restroom. If Ms. Francis is guilty of this behavior, and she is indeed TG, she has done the Community a great disservice.

Carolyn Marie

[MaryEllen]

This person was blatantly displaying her genitalia. This is inappropriate behavior for any one to be engaging in whether cis or trans. This person should have been arrested for open and gross lewdness. Sadly, the media will paint us all with the same brush as being perverts.

MaryEllen

[Guest KimberlyF]

Now the parents and students have looked for help. And where have they found it? Alliance Defending Freedom has taken the case and has written a letter to the college saying its not right to expose yourself to girls as young as 6.

The college says they are only following the law. Feminist groups are complaining that their rights are being violated. Nobody was looking to 'do a panty check'. According to how the college reads state law, CF doesn't have to wear them and can sit on a bench legs spread. This is someone who has left a trail on the net claiming estro turns them on, they're 45 but willing to date from 18 up...I'd guess the 18 is just cause its the legal limit?

When the story breaks, without knowing the whole story, the TG community in large numbers turn on these little girls who are just trying to practice swimming. It's pretty disturbing.

[Guest Jenni_S]

I have no doubt that Ms. Francis knew exactly what would happen, if she shouted "discrimination" like she did. She knew she would get defenders, some rabid, that would not be able to easily back out once they started. She got them. She made herself out to be the victim, and was able to do it for a good month; plenty of time to get a good, solid backing. She knew exactly how to play it. She made sure everyone know she is "transgender."

And it seems that there are plenty that continue to defend her, even with the new information, rather than admitting they were wrong. It's only going to add more fuel to the fire. Knowing what you know, you'd still defend this person? Ghastly.

No matter what you consider yourself, be it cross-dresser, gender queer, transsexual, androgyne, whatever, all of them are called transgender. Every last one has been hurt by this, and will continue to be. The damage has begun, and it is not done. Just wait until the things Ms. Francis has posted on the web start hitting the mainstream. Oh, it's already out there. The blogs have it. Search for her name, you'll find it too. Once one major news source sees that, you can bet it'll be picked up.

One selfish person. That's all it took. My rights trump yours.

So, you're a weekend cross dresser, trying to keep it private? Or you like to dress up, go out to a drag show, and have fun with the girls? Perhaps you're transsexual, trying to lead a quiet, happy life. Or you're androgyne, and proudly, and trying to show the world that there's more than the binary. Or a scared teenager, that knows something is very wrong, and don't know what to do or who to talk to.

Your lives just got more difficult. Thank you, Colleen Francis.

(Why yes, I'm furious.)

[Guest]

As others have pointed out.

There are always more than one side to a story. Usually there a re at least three, "yours", "mine" and "the truth".

As for wearing clothes in a sauna I find that unlikely.

The damage is done and we will reap the consequences for years to come.

Huggs,

Joann

[Guest KimberlyF]

As for wearing clothes in a sauna I find that unlikely.

According to the report, the sauna was one incident. Then the next day, CF was back and again naked in the locker room. Whole lot of nakedness in two days around kids.

[Guest Mia J]

While clothes in the sauna may not be the norm a discrete towel is the norm.

This person has done a lot of damage to us from what I have read and I would hope that the community would point out that this is not who we are or what we want.

Personally the last thing I would ever want to do is expose my parts that don't fit my gender to anyone and I find it hard to believe that she is really transsexual or transgender.

Mia

[Guest (Lightsider)]

I am surprised this thread died. (It was pointed out to me) You are right on the money. I am glad to see some of the community standing against this person.