I was originally uninterested in the controversy surrounding transgender bathrooms, but now the more I hear about it, the more I can’t shut my thoughts out, and thus keep my fingers off the keys. There are so many factors at play, yet many only see the black and white of the matter.
Being the Moderate that I am, I understand and generally agree with both sides of this argument. But I don’t believe the problem lies with the proponents of gender neutral bathrooms, nor the opponents. I believe the problem lies with the media. The mainstream media has created a highly energetic shit-storm out of this issue. Ever since it’s gained public attention, the media has blown it completely out of proportion – scaremongering and feeding into our fears – and I must say that they’re doing a bang up job of it.
Somehow, the press has succeeded in making an entire group of people – mainly conservatives – throw all common sense to the wind.
I don’t want a grown man sharing a bathroom with my daughter!
Okay, I guess it’s not completely irrational to believe that some perverts will take advantage of gender neutral bathrooms, but what makes one believe that only now, when this issue has taken nationwide center-stage, that the rapists and pedophiles are all the sudden going to come out of the woodwork and start practicing peeping Tom-ary? Also, if you think people like Caitlyn Jenner – who is now looking quite womanly – aren’t already using the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity, you’re just plain wrong.
While I was attending a technical college in my early 20’s, we had to do a project on diversity in the healthcare field. Basically we were to come up with a situation where an encounter with diversity could be problematic. This is how one of my classmates (we’ll call her Natalie) told the class that she was a male to female transgender. I’m unsure of what kind of reaction she was expecting, but she got one of dumbfounded surprise. There was no way any of us would have known if she hadn’t chosen to out herself to us. She had brought in a photo of her and her family before her transition. Incredibly, she and the woman she had married (pre-transition) never separated or divorced. They found a way to make it work. Now that’s love! And guess what? She regularly used the women’s restroom with zero problems and no one was the wiser.
I can assure you that if Natalie were to waltz into the men’s restroom she would stand out like a sore thumb, not to mention the danger she’d be putting herself into.
To all the people who are worried about grown men sneaking a peek at your adolescent daughter, what would you think about a person (whom you perceive to be female) using the men’s room? Do you think that, just maybe, it could be dangerous for her? When confronted, should she have to spill her transgender status, potentially further risking her safety?
Anyone who believes that this guy’s trip to the women’s room would go unnoticed is either blind or lying to themselves. On the other hand, I’m sure he would use the men’s room without incident.
I’d like to express a different way of understanding this controversy. There are serious flaws in the opposition here.
For example, should we create a bathroom for gay men for the sole reason that they are sexually attracted to other men? Who knows if the guy in the urinal next to you thinks you’re cute?
What about pedophiles? Should documented sex offenders be banned from using public restrooms? No matter what you think of them, they have to answer Mother Nature’s call like the rest of us. These vile human beings could be peeing right next to your son. If you ask me, sex offenders are a far greater public restroom hazard than anyone, and the fact that no one cares which restroom they use, or that they even use public restrooms to begin with, makes your fear of gender neutral bathrooms look nonsensical.
Bottom Line
There are more things at play here than your irrational fear that some creep is going to go out of his way to pretend to be a female in order to get a look at your daughter, sister, mother, niece, granddaughter, etc. This is not all about you. You may not agree and/or support transgender people and the struggles they face, but they are people who are just trying to get by and find happiness like the rest of us. Just like gun owners shouldn’t be punished for the actions of a few mass murderers, transgendered people likewise shouldn’t be punished for the sickos of the world.
Thought Factor 