OPINION:
Tampons aren’t needed in males’ restrooms for transgender “men.”
Seventeen Democrats in the Maryland General Assembly are seemingly intent on putting the “men” in menstruation, literally and figuratively.
Those state lawmakers are drawing deserved ridicule for HB 941. The bill calls for supplying “menstrual hygiene products in every public restroom in a building owned, leased or operated by the state” — including in boys’ and men’s restrooms.
The latter is for the benefit of so-called transgender men, or gender-confused biological females who think they are male, their XX chromosomes and periods notwithstanding.
When asked how much that would cost, the bill’s sponsors conceded they didn’t know, so it would either add an undetermined amount of red ink to the state’s growing budget deficit or it would remain an unfunded mandate.
“The fiscal note on the bill said ‘undetermined’ because there are so many state-owned public buildings,” noted state Delegate Kathy Szeliga, Baltimore County Republican, who is leading the charge against the bill. “And they wanted it to be paid for by taxpayers.”
State-owned buildings that presumably would be affected by Maryland Democrats’ “bathroom bill” include Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, all University of Maryland campus facilities, and Interstate 95 rest stops.
Some other numbers provide needed context for this misbegotten legislation and potential expenditure at a time when the state is already facing a $1.5 billion budget deficit in fiscal 2027 and when there are whispers in Annapolis about raising the state sales tax by fully one-third, from 6% to 8%.
By one estimate, transgender people amount to 0.003 of 1% of the population — that’s 30 per 1 million. Assuming that transgender men, whom HB 941 is intended to help, made up half that number, that would be 15 per 1 million.
With Maryland’s population of about 6.2 million, that would translate to fewer than 100 transgender men in the entire state who presumably could benefit from the bill. How many of them actually go to state buildings and use the restrooms there?
With those vanishingly small numbers, transgender people are the most minuscule of special-interest groups, but they are pandered to by Democrats and have vastly disproportional influence in Democratic Party circles, and not just in Maryland.
The bill’s sponsors may have gotten the idea for HB 941 from Rep. Grace Meng, New York Democrat. In June, Ms. Meng reintroduced her Menstrual Equity for All Act, which would appropriate federal funds to help eradicate what she dubbed “period poverty” by providing tampons and other “menstrual products” to those she says can’t afford them.
The congresswoman’s press release on her legislation repeatedly refers to “adults who menstruate,” “people who menstruate” and “women, girls, and menstruators,” in what clearly is an oblique genuflection to transgender men.
Girls and women have always carried tampons with them to work, school or wherever else they went, and public restrooms already often have vending machines to purchase them for a nominal fee.
Until now, however, no one has seen any need to make them available in restrooms for boys and men, and for good reason. The microscopic number of gender-confused transgender men in Maryland is not a good reason for HB 941.
To help kill the bill, the Republican minority in Annapolis should turn the tables on the left with help from the late leftist agitator Saul Alinsky and his “Rules for Radicals.”
Alinsky proffered 13 such “rules” to advance the radical leftist agenda, but in this case, they can be used to thwart this newest component of the left’s agenda.
Rule No. 5 is relevant here: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon,” he wrote. “It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also, it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.”
For the Alinskyite political weapon of ridicule, HB 941 is a target-rich environment.
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