01 Jun 2013 NAACP Chief’s Cross-Dressing Advocacy Hurts Voters, by Derryck Green
Ben Jealous, the president and CEO of the increasingly-irrelevant NAACP, has provided yet recent example of why the NAACP is on life support.
It’s not enough that, with the help of the ACLU and other identity politics special interest groups, the NAACP is now suing the state of Arizona in federal court to have the “Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Non-Discrimination Act” thrown out. It’s a law to prohibit and criminalize all race and sex-based abortions.
Apparently, in this case, the NAACP sees nothing wrong with the disproportionate number of abortions happening among blacks and wants more babies aborted.
But it gets worse.
In June, the head of the nation’s most recognized civil rights group argued against voter ID laws because they “disadvantage” transgendered Americans.
Seriously.
While speaking on a panel at the far-left Netroots Nation gathering in San Jose, California, Jealous argued that voter ID laws shouldn’t be implemented because ballot box safeguards can be discriminatory to those very, very few Americans who hate their God-given gender so much that they dress like the opposite sex and even sometimes undergo operations to change their sex entirely.
Using his adopted brother as an example, Jealous claimed that requiring identification to vote would put his brother at a disadvantage because his brother dresses differently when he’s man-hunting in the streets of San Francisco. Jealous claims this creates a visual discrepancy depending on when or where his brother, or any transgendered person, shows his or her identification.
Based on this, in Jealous’s mind, voter protection laws that require photo ID should be discarded.
Really?
The NAACP and Jealous are ardent opponents of voter ID rules that protect ballots from being spoiled by fraud and have argued mightily against their implementation for various reasons, but this new one seems like an awfully specious argument. It seems almost desperate.
A study released by UCLA sex and law researcher Gary J. Gates found that there are roughly 700,000 people — only 0.3 percent of the American population — who self-identify as transgendered.
Ignoring the fact that the group of people Jealous thinks is at risk is incredibly small, let’s think about the imposition that he is trying to avoid by throwing out an effective means of protecting the electoral process.
Elections are usually held every other year. Sometimes there are special elections or unusual circumstances, but most areas don’t have more than one vote a year at most. Jealous is saying that transgendered folk can’t dress their sex, or at least androgynously, just once a year for a trip to the polls?
Even Jealous noted that his brother only cross-dresses when he’s looking for dates and not when he goes to work. A Tuesday in November should surely find his brother in couture comparable to his driver’s license.
It’s more than keeping cross-dressers content. Voter ID laws prevent corruption and deception, and they are like kryptonite to the fraudsters. Opponents of voter ID are not necessarily fraudsters themselves, but they certainly make the corrupt practice easier.
Only in the progressive mind can someone argue with a straight face that voter ID laws that would limit and discourage voter fraud should be avoided because they represent discrimination to such a statistically tiny demographic group.
Next, we’re likely to hear the NAACP argue against voter ID laws because they think these laws would “discriminate” against people who suffer from multiple personality disorder. Arguing against protections of the democratic process that the NAACP in the past worked so hard to open up for all hurts the way that the group is now perceived and puts its legacy at risk. The pulse is fading, and the NAACP is close to flatlining.
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Derryck Green, a member of the national advisory council of the Project 21 black leadership network, received a M.A. in Theological Studies from Fuller Theological Seminary and is currently pursuing his doctorate in ministry at Azusa Pacific University. Comments may be sent to [email protected].
Published by the National Center for Public Policy Research. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their author, and not necessarily those of Project 21, other Project 21 members, or the National Center for Public Policy Research, its board or staff.