I fully support the recent Supreme Court decision regarding gay marriage. Not recognizing a marriage between two human beings denies them the basic legal protections offered to married couples. One spouse cannot inherit from the other. If one spouse is dying and no longer able to make their own medical decisions, the other does not have any say regarding that care. Without legal recognition of marriages, couples cannot enjoy the tax benefits offered to married couples. All of this denies gay couples the ability to enjoy the same rights that the rest of us take for granted.
I don’t care if seeing a gay couple together makes you uncomfortable. Too bad. The first time I saw a gay couple years ago, I was taken aback and uncomfortable as well. And I still am. But their rights trump your comfort. All of our rights trump the comfort of others. THAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE CONSTITUTION. If we all had the same exact desires and beliefs, we would not even need a Constitution. The reason that we DO have the Constitution is to protect those in minority FROM the majority. That is the very reason the founding fathers required a ¾ majority vote to amend it. They knew too well that the majority would trample the rights of the minority if given the chance.
Now, the big issue of the day is transgender bathroom use. This is NOT THE SAME ISSUE as the right to marry. No one is denying any transgender person the right to use a bathroom. Not at all. In fact, many places have a gender-neutral third bathroom for just such a situation. Most laws, where there actually are laws regulating this, simply state that you must use the facility that was designed for your biological design. (Most Men’s rooms have only one or two stalls, and 5 or more urinals. If you are not anatomically a male, you are going to run into a problem!)
The issue now is that Transgender people do not feel COMFORTABLE using the bathroom that matches their physical gender. Other people do not feel COMFORTABLE sharing a bathroom with someone of the opposite physical sex.
This is NOT an issue of one’s RIGHTS trumping another’s COMFORT LEVEL. This is an issue of one person’s COMFORT LEVEL versus another’s COMFORT LEVEL. Nowhere does the Constitution say that one person’s COMFORT LEVEL trumps someone else’s. Because it does not. Just because YOU are uncomfortable does NOT give you the right to make someone else uncomfortable.
ON THE OTHER HAND ………………
Is this REALLY a major problem for us? Personally, I have never checked for the existence of a penis on anyone I have met in the men’s room, and I don’t intend to start now. Nor do I plan to prove the existence of my own to anybody else as a requirement to use a rest room. I am not sure how it is in a women’s restroom, but men, when taking care of business, barely recognize or even acknowledge the existence of anybody else. I’ll never even notice a person who looks like they belong. I probably would notice a man in a dress. And I definitely would notice if someone were watching me in an inappropriate way, no matter what they were wearing.
BOTTOM LINE: If you are dressed like a woman, look like a woman, and act like a woman, use the Women’s room. If you are dressed like a man, act like a man, and look like a man, use the Men’s room. No one’s going to do a Penis Check. Perverts who take advantage of this will stand out (no pun intended) and be caught, just as they always have.
We don’t need any new laws. Let each individual establishment set their own policies, just as they always have.
The real issue here should be the disgusting attempts by lawmakers to discriminate against people and then cloaking that discrimination under the guise of protecting our religious freedoms. The only freedoms in jeopardy today are the freedoms of the ones being discriminated against.
