State Laws requiring anyone who uses a public restroom to use the restroom designated for those of the "correct" gender (namely that on the restroom-user's birth certificate) have been passed recently in North Carolina. (In fact, I believe that's the only state that has this sort of law.) The media is full of opinions from self-declared Progressives (among whom I counted myself) that these sorts of laws are motivated by hate, fear and suspicion.
Quite honestly, most laws have support from a variety of kinds of people, all supporting it for different reasons. In this case, at least some of those supporting "Correct Restroom" legislation must be doing so for genuine reasons. Half the women I know would love to go into a male restroom. In fact, stories about intrepid female reporters who invade the precincts of the men's locker rooms after a football game are numerous, though I suppose it is easy for a gal to get a voluntary invitation into a testosterone-filled locker room! But it seems to me that some progressives are deliberately turning a blind eye to the possibility that some users of restrooms are unhappy about even the possibility of someone of what they consider the wrong gender using it with them. So far, most of those who are nervous about people whom they consider men to be using the restroom with them seem to be women. But those making the most noise about transphobia and hate also seem to be women. So we have, undoubtedly, a degree of bullying from women who are intolerant of those who prefer not to have "guys" sharing their restrooms with them. And we have some bullying from women who couldn't care less about who is in the women's room with them (supported by the men who love them).
It is becoming very clear that progressives, or those who are progressive on this one point, who pride themselves on "not being prudes," do have a tendency to take up a bullying tone when it comes to legislation that they want to oppose, or push through. It could easily suggest that progressives tend to be bullies on other issues as well, which upsets me.
I believe that anyone who objects to sharing a restroom with anyone else based on a gender issue is justified. I would side--at this point in history--with those who oppose the opposition of restroom sharing based solely on race or national origin, or something that has been settled culturally. Transgender individuals (and their support groups) would dearly love to consider that transsexuals have been completely accepted in society, but unfortunately this is not the case, and these laws are testing to what extent transsexuals are accepted.
I hope that the fact that I, as an author, enthusiastically support transgender roles (if not actual gender modification, at least not yet,) will convince my readers that I am not approaching this issue from a position of hate. (Remember: non-support does not equal hate. Those who take the "if you don't support us then you hate us" line are indulging in cynical rhetoric. Progressives used to chant: If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem." I reluctantly tolerated this foolishness at one time because I believed in what those progressives were fighting for. But now I have to put my foot down: just because this so-called "Transphobic" legislation makes conservatives happy is not a good reason for opposing it.
Having said that, the way in which it has been proposed (or made law) is cynical. The question is not whether anyone should be permitted to use any public restroom, but rather whether anyone should have the right to privacy. Now, if anyone were to demand a restroom to themselves because they did not want to use a restroom together with those of the wrong race, we would be upset. But that battle has been fought, and culturally we have moved on. But, you see, we can now provide totally private restrooms. Planes have them. Restaurants have them. Hospitals have them. We can accommodate any level of privacy. Why must we force anyone to use a communal restroom?
So, rather than force people to produce their birth certificates, which strikes me as wrong-headed in the extreme, we should permit anyone who is suspicious of their fellow-restroom-users to use a unisex single-user restroom. If they balk at that, then we will have to address that problem.
Kay.
No comments:
Post a Comment