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On 31 May 2016, the web site LifeSiteNews (a known purveyor of misleading information) published an article reporting that former Georgia American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) employee Maya Dillard Smith had resigned from the organization because her children were made uncomfortable by sharing a bathroom with three transgender women. This report first appeared on LifeSiteNews and was then aggregated by a number of similar blogs without additional question or verification. Citing a statement of unspecified date or distribution issued by Smith, LifeSiteNews reported: In an excerpted statement, Smith shared an anecdote about her children's purported encounter with transgender individuals in a bathroom. It was unclear when, where, or under which circumstances Smith experienced the events she described; she merely stated that she personally encountered three transgender young adults who were over six feet [tall] and who had deep voices in a bathroom at some unspecified place and time: Smith also stated disagreement with efforts by the ACLU to afford transgender persons access to bathroom facilities matching their gender identities: Smith's purported encounter with transgender women of unusual height and her resignation from the ACLU coincided with her launch of a vague initiative called Finding Middle Ground. A web site for that organization leads to a page featuring no information about the group's purpose or focus; aside from a contact form, the page includes only a video published by Maya Dillard Smith to YouTube on 22 May 2016: We contacted the ACLU's national chapter regarding the Smith's claims, but the representative with whom we spoke was unable to discuss the controversy, saying only that it was a personnel matter. The organization hasn't yet directly addressed Smith's story, but both the ACLU's national and Georgia chapters shared the following link on their Facebook pages when it surfaced:
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