Transgender, Bathrooms, and the Feds (Part II)

I always try to look at both sides of an issue before I take a stand.  I try not to let my emotions overwhelm my senses of logic and right and wrong.  Finally, I try to make sure that any stand that I do take supports the core principles our country was founded on:  Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

I wrote about the transgender bathroom issue last week.  Apparently, my blog did not solve the issue!  It has grown even bigger this week.  So here is my take, Part Two:

Conservatives have argued that allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice puts our children in danger.   I reject that argument.  Both statistics and common sense demonstrate the flaws of that argument.  Over the past 15 years, at least a dozen states have passed laws specifically allowing transgender persons to use the bathroom of their choice.  During that entire time, there have been no reported incidents of transgender people, or people pretending to be transgender, assaulting other people in restrooms.  It simply has not happened.   And common sense explains why:  If a man is planning to assault someone in a restroom, the last thing he wants is to draw attention to himself.  And whether it is legal or not, any man entering a women’s restroom WILL draw attention to himself.   If the man disguises himself as a woman to get in, it does not matter whether there is a transgender law or not, because we won’t know he is not a woman unless we start looking down the pants of everyone using a restroom.  We won’t find out until he actually starts to attack someone.  At that time, he has broken a much bigger law than any transgender law.

Liberals have taken the stand that they have a right to use the bathroom of their choice.  I also reject that argument.  Unlike the issue over gay marriage, where couples were denied basic spousal protections, tax benefits, inheritance, and other legal rights just because their spouse did not have the proper genitals, no one is denying a transgender person the right to relieve themselves in a rest room.  I do not deny that transgender people may feel uncomfortable using the restroom that matches their anatomy.   But we cannot also deny that allowing them to use the other restroom will result in other people being uncomfortable.  Either way, no matter what, someone is going to be uncomfortable.   Comfort-ability is a feeling based on emotion, and cannot be dictated to us by others.   This is way comfort is NOT a right we are granted under the Constitution, nor should it ever be.  When we start to pass laws just to protect people’s feelings, we are starting down a slippery slope that can only end in disaster.

My position is that the Federal Government needs to stay out of this issue entirely.  That means you, Mr. President.  If State and local authorities want to set a policy on what restrooms people can use in government-owned building, let them.  State and local authorities are locally elected and can be defeated if they don’t follow the standards community requires.   But private citizens and businesses should be left alone to decide for themselves how their restrooms may be used.  I applaud Target for taking a stand, and I will continue to shop there.  And if I need to use the restroom there, I am comforted to know I now have twice as many options to choose from.  If other stores want to say that restroom usage must match anatomy, that is their right as well, and I will also continue to frequent those stores.  For we, as consumers, have the right to patronage or not to patronage any particular business.

Bottom Line:  Except for setting policies on buildings it directly owns, neither the Federal Government nor local authorities should be passing any laws or ordinances on this issue at all. 

Let all remember that every time that the government passes a law or regulation telling us something that we must or must not do, we give up a little bit of that liberty that our country was founded on, and that our forefathers fought and died to give to us. Any use of governmental power to restrict our freedoms should be a last resort, and used only when absolutely necessary.

Personally, it does not matter to me in the least what bathroom a transgender person uses.  I use the restroom solely to take care of my personal business.  Besides, except for urinals (which only men can physically use), the only time anybody is disrobed in the slightest is when they are in a stall with the door shut.  If someone peeks over or under the door while you are in there, they are already breaking the law anyway.

Another related issue was brought up this week as well.  What about locker rooms and showers?  Unlike bathrooms, where the important activities are still private and no one is really exposed to any other person’s private parts, locker rooms and showers leave nothing unexposed.  In this instance, I must take a harsher stand, and side with those that would restrict locker room and showers to those who biologically match genders, especially where children are concerned.

At this point in my life, as an adult, if I personally had to choose between walking around in a locker room with a bunch of naked men or naked women, I would choose the women.  Sadly, I seriously doubt they would feel the same about me.  

But as a child, it would have been a different story.  In our society, parents are free to raise their kids as they feel is right.  And that includes teaching of sex when age and individual maturities warrant.  Any child who has ever seen a mirror knows what their gender looks like.  But exposing a young child to a naked member of the opposite sex before they are old enough to understand why we are different could cause anxiety and interfere with their parents’ desires on how to educate them on these topics.

I can understand the desires of a transgender person to use the restroom whose gender their identity with.  Most likely, they are already dressing and behaving like the gender they identify with, and will blend in using that restroom.  Forcing them to use the restroom that matches their biological gender would just make them stand out and be even more uncomfortable.  But the opposite is true for locker rooms and showers.  No matter what gender you identify with, when you are naked, your either have a penis or you do not.

Transgenders & Bathroom

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.