Says the journalist: “While she appreciates the sudden concern for women and children’s safety, she says there are a million ways to ensure that without restricting bathrooms.” (itals mine)
The favorite line of mine they didn’t use: “I think the line for the ladies’ room is long enough without adding paperwork.”
Comments my wife after seeing the segment: “Kramer vs Kremer”.
So, as a Trans person living in NC where a lot of this began with HB2, which we have vowed to defeat, I have narrowed some of this thinking down after attending a rally here in Raleigh and talked to a part of the large group favoring HB2 and given this some thought.
Beileve me, after attending that rally and being surrounded by bible thumping people (up to six at a time) and walking away alive, it seems that they think they are keeping ALL predators out of women’s rooms by passing this kind of bill. They have also segregated their concerns in to two areas. The first is the general public use and the second is concern is for their children in school and shower/dressing rooms. Of course both of these concerns are based on fear and ignorance aboujt Trans people and in a few cases, even these zealots admit that Trans people are being dragged into this attempt to protect what they perceive to be their moral and religious rights. The concept of gender assigned at birth is also a big factor in their belief system.
I think that besides all the hate and fear involved, we also have a responsibility to use the correct argument and that starts by using the term “gender presentation” instead of “gender expression” when arguing about this. Bringing the discussion back to reality helps and if people could simply be directed to a something like You Tube videos showing “boys who wear dresses” and a few of those videos, they might better understand about “gender presentation”. Young people in those videos and people like them have been using public restrooms for many years and after looking at some of them, even the dumbest of those HB2ers might agree that they would be better of in the ladies room for their own sake.
As far as the shower/dressing rooms in schools, we need to understand that there is a blowback we are receiving from the GLB movement and thee arguments about choice or choosing to live that way. I have found that when people concerned about school situations are concerned, they have little to no argument about children who identified as Trans before they had any sexual tendencies at all, in some cases before they could even spell the word sex.
Taking the sexual component out of the argument makes many of these people stop and think about it long enough to get your foot in the door and make them realize that they need to think about these young children who are Trans and consider why they are calling them a “threat” to anyone at those early ages.
I also believe that we all must be incensed by what is happening and understand that if we persist and win this argument that we have had to tolerate for literally generations, then this “teaching moment” will put this argument to rest and the Trans community will be able to move on with it faster than ever before. Literally, our future is in the balance here. If we allow ourselves to become the brunt of jokes and derision and have our rights taken away, then we are condemning future generations of having to live as we have in the past.
Lastly, we should be reminding people that in Europe the World Court in Brussels decided on the rights of Trans people internationally many years ago when they stated in a case brought by the UK that if you are not going to outlaw being Transgender and/or gender correction surgery, then you MUST provide Trans people with all the same rights as anyone else, and that includes being able to have adequate public facilities for things like the bathroom.
Actually, it might not be a bad idea to have the State of North Carolina and HB2 brought to the United Nation for a judgement there.
Angela, Thank you so much for your long and thoughtful comment. I really appreciate it, and agree with what you’ve written. Honestly, I wish I had all of the 20 mins of footage they snagged that 10 seconds out of because I made a few of those points, too.
Either way, what a pleasure to hear from you!
Stay angry, my friends. Stay angry.