[Alaska] Faith based shelter fights to keep out transgender women

[GrinitchSpinach]

A conservative Christian law firm that has pushed religious issues in multiple states urged a U.S. judge on Friday to block Alaska's largest city from requiring a faith-based women's shelter to accept transgender women.

Alliance attorney Ryan Tucker said many women at the shelter are survivors of violence and allowing biological men would be highly traumatic for them. He told U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason that women have told shelter officials that if biological men are allowed to spend the night alongside them, "they would rather sleep in the woods," even in extreme cold like the city has experienced this week with temperatures hovering around zero. [that's zero Fahrenheit; -17.8 Celsius]

The shelter operators filed a federal lawsuit against the city and its Equal Rights Commission in August, months after a transgender woman complained to the commission that she was denied housing at the shelter.

The plaintiffs maintain the person identified only as "Jessie Doe" showed up inebriated after hours in January 2018 and was not turned away because of gender, a point Tucker raised again in court Friday. The shelter officials even paid for a taxi to take her to a hospital for treatment of a forehead wound from fighting at another shelter, according to alliance attorneys.

www.usnews.com/news/best-states/alaska/articles/2019-01-11/judge-to-hear-arguments-in-anchorage-transgender-case

Their lawyer has been in legal trouble for doing his job;

Anchorage attorney faces discrimination complaint while defending faith-based homeless shelter
www.ktuu.com/content/news/Anchorage-attorney-faces-discrimination-complaint-while-defending-faith-based-homeless-shelter--487725491.html

About the complainant;
''Alaska voter rolls list Timothy Coyle, age 52, whose address is the Brother Francis Shelter.
Coyle’s complaint is clean, legalistic, and notarized. He may have gotten help from Abused Women’s Aid in Crisis (AWAIC) in filing his complaint against Hope Center.''

''His court records show that Coyle is a man with an extensive criminal record, including violent crimes. There are no court records found in extensive research by Must Read Alaska that pertain to his assumed female identity.''

mustreadalaska.com/transgender-files-complaint-shelter-abused-women/

I remember reading about this a while back. I sincerely hope the shelter win. I have some questions, if any of our American sisters are about, as I’m not really sure of the legal system (and I’ve had a wine or 3 ) I hope you don’t mind, anyone who can answer!

• If the shelter win, does it set a precedent like it does in the UK?
• Are there any federal (or Alaska state) laws which are anything like the UK Equality Act 2010?
• Are there any laws which compel shelters (or anywhere else) to admit people as the gender they identify as?

I’m really interested about how this will go. I also would love to donate the very tiny amount I have available to help them. Is there any information on which shelter it is?

It's The Hope Center, Anchorage, Alaska Badger. Should be traceable. It's outrageous, especially when you see the sleeping accommodation all laid out like that. Fox in the hen house. Again.

I'll do my best, Badger but IANAL.

-Gleason is a US district judge for Alaska. Any decision of hers could be appealed by either party to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Any decision of the 9th Circuit could be appealed to the Supreme Court, which would have the final word if they chose to take up the appeal.

-There is no US federal law protecting "gender identity." States are making it up as they go, with wildly different variations. Eventually the Supreme Court will have to take up some of these cases and clarify the situation.

-I don't know about state and municipal laws re: shelters. I'm sure they exist in more 'progressive' places though.

I have to limit myself from posting too much, as this is all making me too angry.

My thoughts are with the women...

I think the case was also discussed on this thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3413550-Alaskan-Battered-Women-s-Shelter-Is-Being-Investigated-For-Turning-Away-A-Drunk-Injured-Man

Ancient you’re right, I’ve taken a look and these traumatised women are sleeping on mattresses on the floor in a large open space.
This man is beneath contempt and with such deep seated hatred should be allowed nowhere near vulnerable women.

Thanks Ancient and Grinitch

What a fucking fucker. As I’ve long said; the men who want to access women’s spaces are exactly the sort of men you don’t want in women’s spaces. It is utterly shocking the lengths some men will go to when they are told “no”. Except I’m not shocked, not at all. There are too many of these cases.

The trans community bangs on endlessly about “inclusivity” and “acceptance” and “ whatever I say I am is valid and everyone else should fuck off and re-educate themselves”. Excluding certain religions, survivors of sexual abuse, and any damn women who says no and maintains their boundaries is totally fine yeah? Fuck those survivors of horrific abuse. They don’t matter do they? All that matters is that a man who says he is a woman is accepted into a woman-only space. Not because he’s desperate, because he could have been accommodated elsewhere. Just purely because this man feels like women can get to fuck, no matter what they’ve been through, or what their beliefs are. This man truly believes his feelz trump the feelings of women who have been raped, assaulted, emotionally and financially abuse and have run in fear of their life. This man ought to be nowhere near women.

I am absolutely raging tonight. Too many stories, all the same, of men saying women’s boundaries don’t matter. Children are fair game. Why can’t we just be nice? I’m done. If this post earns me a strike, so be it.

EJennings that is a fantastic overview of what is happening in the USA, thank you for that.

Amazing, breathtaking post Badger

Oh sorry, I scrolled too far. Thanks EJennings

EJennings thank you, what a fantastic post. It seems that cries of bigotry are just as effective a tool on both sides of the Atlantic.

EJennings thank you! Great post.

I think the federal nature of the US has made it harder for women not just to organize, but even just to become aware of the scope of our legal (and other) peril here. Just as transactivists in the UK have been working behind the scenes for a decade or two, slipping major changes into laws under the radar, without public debate until 2018 essentially, US transactivists have been up to similar, but at the state and municipal levels. Since it's all so disjointed geographically, and this is a huge country, most of my friends and family have absolutely no idea about this concerted push to erase sex as a legal concept.

Yep. It’s not in the public consciousness at all. I tried googling about trans law in the US (specifically, I was trying to figure out if adding gender identity as a protected class under existing equal rights legislation would require single sex services to admit trans individuals based on their identity) and got nothing but articles saying that trans women aren’t a threat to women. There was one article that made the claim that there have been no attacks on women by trans women or men who are pretending to be trans (which has to be a lie)?

I just wanted to know IF the language of the equal rights bills could be interpreted to mean you can’t discriminate except where single sex services obviously but there doesn’t seem to be any clarification (especially with gender and sex being conflated, constantly, and no definitions given).

The GRA/EA are crystal clear in comparison to the various USA LGBT rights bills.

www.ktuu.com/content/news/Transgender-woman-at-center-of-Downtown-Soup-Kitchen-lawsuit-speaks-out-504529741.html

Sympathetic interview of the trans person at the center of the complaint.

I would be fucking terrified to share a communal open sleeping space with this person.