The Transgender Bathroom Issue

I respect the fact that everyone has the right to their own opinion whether you agree with mine or not so long as you can be civil about it. That being said, I know that what I’m about to say may piss people off and it may cost me relationships with people I know and other readers but I feel the need to share my thoughts on this controversial subject.

I am not transgender. I am a woman and I know that not because of the sexual organs I was born with but because I know myself and I am comfortable in the body in which I was born.

I do, however, I fully support transgendered individuals and know several. I am an ally. I always will be.

Out of nowhere, thanks to laws and proposed laws, we as a society are in a massive uproar over “the bathroom issue.” The thing is, though, that this isn’t about bathrooms just as it wasn’t about water fountains and bathrooms and bus seats during the era of Civil Rights for blacks.  This is about hatred. This is about being afraid of that which is different and that which we do not personally understand.

You have no idea how many times you’ve used a public bathroom and peed, pooped, and washed your hands next to a transgendered individual. It happens and has been happening daily and until recently, no one thought twice about it.

The Bathroom Issue seems to be based on this assumption:
Someone who is a heterosexual male could walk into any public restroom dressed as a woman and assault a woman or child.

Say ANYONE walked into a restroom, walked into a stall, stood on the toilet and peered over the wall of the stall next to them don’t you think that would set off alarm bells regardless of what said person was wearing?  Obviously, if I saw a man doing that my pervert alarm would start screaming but I also know it would start screaming if I saw a woman doing that too. No one, regardless of their sex, should be peering over stall walls and the truth is that the kind of people who WOULD do that would do it anyway. Pedophiles and rapists are going to attempt to do what they want to do regardless of the laws. 

If you want a truly sobering truth try this on for size:
Statistically, at some point in our lives most of us have very likely been in a public restroom peeing, pooping, and washing our hands next to a pedophile or rapist. We already know that a lot of Catholics have likely sat in mass led by a pedophile.

As I stated previously, this isn’t about bathrooms. This is about fearing that which we do not understand and that which is different. How many of us truly have any real knowledge of what transgendered is or what it is like to be transgendered other than the “supposed facts” we read on the Internet?

Yes, the visibility of the transgender community is growing but these people (and that is exactly what they are – PEOPLE like you and I) face discrimination at every turn in their personal lives and their work lives. For many, one of the biggest fears is the public restroom and what might happen to them if the bigots of the world discover they are transgendered.

Did you know that most transgendered people have been bullied? Did you know that many have been sexually assaulted? Did you know that they are at a very high risk of suicide attempts and successfully committing suicide? They are told so often that who they are makes them less than human, unnatural, freakish, and deviant simply because their gender identity doesn’t match the body they were born into.

I may not be 100% correct in everything I say and I’m sure people will take issue with what I’ve said on both ends of the argument. All I can say is that I’ve seen sexual abuse and therefor rightfully have fears and am overprotective of little girls in my life and while I understand the concerns – I have no fear or anxiety about using the bathroom with transgendered people. In knowing several transgendered people, there is nothing wrong or monstrous about it. They are not the scary things that go bump in the night and they are not looking to rape and violate women and children. They didn't ask to be born this way with the burden of knowing their bodies don't match who they truly are and they didn't ask for the fear and discrimination. They are simply looking to be accepted and we as a society need to pull up our big boy and big girl panties and give them that.

Below is artwork I did based off of a picture I feel speaks volumes of a friend's brother who is transgendered. This is Oliver. This is him becoming the man he was always meant to be. This is being true to himself. This is is transgender.