Editor,

Last Saturday morning, I was running errands around Oak Harbor, enjoying the sunshine and preparing with the rest of the city for a three-day holiday weekend. Shopping list in hand and tunes turned up loud, I was doing my best Rihanna impression.

Until I drove past the entrance to Walmart and spotted a man with a sign and a table. He had a clipboard and was asking people to sign his petition as they walked by. His sign read, “Ban Transgender Use of Bathrooms in Public Schools.”

All the happy drained right out of me, like a punctured balloon losing helium. I could feel my good mood hissing out my ears; it was so loud I couldn’t hear the music anymore.

I have lived in Oak Harbor for seven years. Seven years of Holland Happenings, Fourth of July parades, trick or treating on Pioneer Way and beach days at Windjammer Park. This city has always felt comfortable, safe and welcoming to me and my family.

I was appalled to think that this city, which I call home, may not treat everyone that way, that some of its residents may not feel safe or welcomed. That broke my heart.

When it comes to the issue of transgender people using public restrooms, a dizzying amount of fear is being bought and sold in the arena of public opinion. Some worry that allowing transgender folks to use the bathroom of their choice will endanger others. People with bad intentions will misuse such a freedom, they say.

As if rapists and thugs seek permission to perform their terrible work. Perverts will always find ways to be perverted, bathroom laws or no.

But the unfounded fears being tossed around this issue aren’t what bothers me most; what bothers me is our eager readiness to allow those fears to push us to actions that negatively impact those we would call neighbors.

We just celebrated Independence Day, as a city and as a nation. We ate hot dogs, lit fireworks, got sunburned; well, the rest of the country did anyway. We celebrated that thing which we are most proud of as Americans: our freedom.

Yet, a man sits outside our Walmart with a sign that tells our transgender community: “Your freedom is not as highly valued as others’ in this city. Your voice, feelings and choices are not valid here.”

I think we can do better, Oak Harbor. Unless we want our Fourth of July festivities to make hypocrites of us, I think we must.

Nicole Neuhauser

Oak Harbor