Who Cares What Bathroom You Use?

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There is not a single, reasonable assertion that should stop individuals who are transgender from using the bathroom of their choice. To do so, is discriminatory and wrongful as a human being. Every single person in the U.S. (unless they have portable restroom that only they use everywhere they go) has at one point used a bathroom that a person of a different gender identity has also used. The bathrooms in our homes are gender neutral, single person restrooms at rest areas, businesses and schools are also gender neutral; just because we don’t label them as such, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. There are co-ed bathrooms in colleges across the nation, and I have used the opposite gender’s bathroom when the one that corresponds with my identity is too busy. The assumption of violence and threat from such people is a harmful stereotype asserted by fear, and it makes the Trump administration’s ruling a severe miscarriage of justice.
On Feb 22, 2017, the Trump administration decided to rescind the Obama administration’s memos regarding transgender student rights.

The Obama era memos said that restricting a transgender student from using facilities that align with their gender identity violates federal anti-discrimination laws. The U.S. Department of Education notes that under Title 9, schools who receive federal funds may not discriminate based on a student’s sex, including a student’s transgender status.

The decision to revoke these justified distinctions was made due to apparent “legal confusion”. There are a variety of arguments for and against the decision by the Trump administration. In some states, the revoked measure wont do anything. In Colorado, state lawmakers passed legislation in 2008 that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

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For some the ruling is more personal. Gavin Grimm, a 17-year-old boy in Virginia, sued his school board for the right to use the male restroom, after a policy was passed requiring students to use facilities that corresponded with their “biological sex”. Up to that point, he had been using the male restroom without notable incidents.
Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New York, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming all introduced Anti-Transgender Bathroom Bills in the 2017 legislative session.

There has been some backlash to these measures. When North Carolina passed similar legislation in 2016, companies like PayPal refused to build and artists Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas pulled concerts out of the state. When we refuse to contribute economically to discriminatory measures, then we send a message that these decisions are not justified.

Visit The National Center for Transgender Equality
to help fight against such legislation both locally and nationally.

2 thoughts on “Who Cares What Bathroom You Use?

  1. So now taking a pee in a public convenience has become a political issue on the ground of discrimination against men who identify as women and women who identify as men. So how can we achieve gender neutral facilities that will work? First of all we need to rip all the urinals out from male public toilet facilities so that everyone has to use a cubicle to take a pee. Because the facilities will be used by male and females, to prevent peeping, the doors and partitions of each cubicle will need to be extended from floor to ceiling. Many men are careless when taking a pee and dribble on the front of the toilet bowl (or seat if has not been lifted) and on the floor in front of the bowl so these cubicles will rapidly become insanitary for females who need to sit to take a pee.This means a full time cleaner will be required to maintain cleanliness in the facility. Or, alternatively, we could make it compulsory for males to take a pee sitting down. Then there is the matter of personal safety in the new age gender neutral facilities.To ensure safety, the facility will need to be monitored by a security guard. The current system of separate facilities for males and females maybe old but at least it works.

    aquarianmist

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    • Hello, thanks for taking the time to read my latest post. I would like to get a few things straight, transgender bathroom accessibility is not an issue I made political. As evidenced throughout the post, it’s been a political issue for awhile now. I personally think that it shouldn’t have to be political, as who cares where you pee. You should get to pee in which ever facility that you so choose. I would like to address some of the comments you have made, first you wouldn’t need to rip out the urinals in any bathroom. If a person feels comfortable using them, they should. If they don’t, then stalls exist for that very reason. As for the stall doors, why would they need to be extended? Do you often find people hiding in stalls waiting to peep at an unsuspecting bathroom goer? Why would this change by letting a person who identifies with the sign on the door into the restroom? If peeping it’s such an overwhelming threat, why isn’t it an issue now? A gender neutral bathroom just allows people of any gender to use that restroom, how is this going to make the threat of peeping skyrocket, unless you are propagating all sexes of being animals with urges that they can’t possibly control?

      As for the cleanliness of the bathroom, men still use stalls that other men have used. Are they subject to unclean standards now? There are plenty of people who prefer to sit down when using the bathroom for a variety of reasons, there isn’t a need for a complusory rule becuase it already happens. In those cases, is there a full time attendant to keep the bathroom clean? I suspect not. There is no evidence that suggests the need for janitors/bathroom attendants will skyrocket because we let people choose what bathroom they prefer to use.

      I trying to understand your argument about personal safety. Who is at risk here? A coalition of over 200 agencies that research sexual assualt and domestic violence found that “Over 200 municipalities and 18 states have nondiscrimination laws protecting transgender people’s access to facilities consistent with the gender they live every day. None of those jurisdictions have seen a rise in sexual violence or other public safety issues due to nondiscrimination laws. Assaulting another person in a restroom or changing room remains against the law in every single state.” Therefore, it is absurd to think that a securty guard would be needed, as they aren’t in the places mentioned above.

      Lastly, I encourage you to do some self-reflection. Read this statement by Laura Palumbo, communications director at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, who told ABC News that people who are looking to sexually assault someone will go into a bathroom regardless if it corresponds to their gender. “It’s problematic to conflate in examples when a person, who is not transgender identified, is trespassing in a restroom exploiting that position to harm others” Clearly it’s not transgender people that we need to worry about in bathrooms, and lets be real frank here a person that seeks to harm will do so regardless of a sign on a door.

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