WASHINGTON, D.C. — The North Carolina law requiring transgender individuals to use the bathroom matching the gender on their birth certificate has had far-reaching effects. Businesses, as well as religious and spiritual communities, have responded in a variety of ways.
One spiritual community has a welcome sign on its door: The Self-Realization Community of Greater Washington, D.C., welcomes LGBTQ individuals to use the same bathrooms as everyone else, whatever their identity or orientation may be, according to its spiritual leader, Rev. Carol “Anandi” Richardson.
While the North Carolina law was passed supposedly for issues of “safety,” according to an ABC News online report, “Over 200 municipalities and 18 states have nondiscrimination laws protecting transgender people’s access to facilities consistent with the gender they live every day. None of those jurisdictions have [sic] seen a rise in sexual violence or other public safety issues due to nondiscrimination laws.”
By contrast, according to a 2013 Williams Institute report featured on Mic.com, “Roughly 70% of trans people have reported being denied entrance, assaulted or harassed while trying to use a restroom.” Williams Institute is a think tank at UCA Law.
Rev. Richardson, M.Div., MPH, has worked with gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals who have experienced far more discrimination than the average American. She says, “Gay, lesbian, and transgender people need spiritual communities where they can experience acceptance by others as well as be supported in their own self-acceptance and self-awareness, in order to fulfill their own spiritual life purposes.”
