America and Gender Neutral Bathrooms
Gender equality is a pressing issue in the United States. The definition of gender, and the rights that accompany them, is constantly being updated and adjusted. The LBGT community is fighting for equality after being repressed for many years. Because of this sudden movement, social issues are sparking outrage and debate on whether a certain law or right for LBGT people is to be initiated. In many instances, these issues dominate the media, and cause for chaos on both sides of the spectrum. The bathroom controversy exemplifies this. The LBGT community argues that anyone should be able to use whichever bathroom that matches with their identified gender. Members of the LBGT community should not be able to use whatever bathroom they please. The U.S. federal government is backing the issue of gender neutral bathrooms. As Lisa Rein, publisher of an article in The Washington Post, writes, “The federal government is strongly urging employers to give transgender employees access to bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity, marking a new policy front in the fast-moving campaign for transgender equality” (Rein). Rein argues that bathrooms need to be made neutral, as it discriminates members of the LBGT community. Essentially, she argues throughout her article that emotional issues are the biggest reason to allow this. She states, “Among the many forms of discrimination advocates for transgender men and women say they face on the job,
This data shows that a majority of students on campus are willing to implement gender neutral bathrooms, while a minority is not. It is obvious that gender neutral bathrooms should be included in our campus to make sure all students are comfortable going to the bathroom. However, it was surprising that some students did not support gender neutral bathrooms. We believe that, due to the other questions asked in the survey, the students who answered that they did not support gender neutral bathrooms believed that the question was asking should all bathrooms be made gender neutral on campus, or should pre-existing unisex multi-stall bathrooms be replaced by gender neutral bathrooms. However, this is not the case. Due to knowledge gained later in
Recently, the issue of allowing transgender people access to public facilities according to the gender they identify with has caused much debate throughout the United States. The bathroom bill seeks to control access to public facilities of transgender individuals, based on the gender they were assigned at birth. In 2015, bills were passed stating entering a bathroom not assigned to a person at birth was a crime. Surrounded by misconception, the bill does “not legalize harassment, stalking, violence, or sexual assault.” Since the bill arose, there have not been a rise in violence or other incidents in the states protecting the transgender rights (Transgender Equality). The bill simply states if one is living as a woman, to use the women’s restroom,
Transgender rights and policies have always been an ongoing debate. In the article, “Bathroom Battlegrounds and Penis Panics,” Schilt and Westbrook (2015) argued that in order to push gender equality forward, we must consider the rights of transgender people by allowing them to have access to bathrooms that support their gender identity rather than their biological sex. In doing so, authors believed that it would make progress in alleviating discrimination against transgender people. However, in this conscious effort to fight for transgender rights and their access to sex-segregated spaces,
House Bill 2 (HB-2) in North Carolina, also known throughout the U.S. as the bathroom law, has made national news as the latest discriminatory law against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer (LGBTQ) community. Details of the law will be provided below, but the component of it that seems most controversial and most misunderstood is the mandate for men and women to use the bathroom of the gender into which they were born rather than that to which they have been reassigned. North Carolina governor Pat McCrory has championed HB-2 regardless of the significant detriment and revenue loss his position has cost the state.
The changing norms of the generation has brought upon commotion between various states because of the presidents judgement. The transgender bathroom policy allows transgender students to use the bathroom they identify as and not by the sex on their birth certificate (Fox News, 2016). The transgender bathroom policy has both successes and failure to ensure safety for transgender students resulting to its change being for not only trans-gender. Gender neutral bathrooms allows safety for those who are not only transgender, but also a part of the LGBTQ community, etc. but it causes a conflict with gender segregation. Adding additional bathrooms to suite other gender preferences costs more money and not everyone is going to accept what they walk into the bathroom and see. The gender neutral bathroom policy should be taken off of hold and be put into action because everything is constantly changing and those who do not identify as the sex they were assigned at birth are at risk for harm.
These kind of people want to and will try to make someone’s life as hard as possible simply because they see this subject differently. The simple, daily task of using the bathroom is a breeze for any typical person. Unfortunately, this task comes across as a intimidating adversary to a trans person simply because one can be conflicted with which restroom to use. For many trans people, entering a gender-specific bathroom can be a source of stress and anxiety, because using the restroom can mean very real health and safety concerns. Harassment of trans people in and around gender-specific bathrooms can range from denial of use to police intervention to verbal threats and physical assault.
When approaching public restrooms, most look at the gender on the door that associates with their own gender. However, some stare at those labels wondering which one they belong in. These types of people are often referred to as transgenders. Transgenders are people who identify themselves with the opposite gender of their biological sex. Therefore, for this category of people, entering a restroom is not so easy. They often wonder whether they should go into the bathroom of their biological sex or of their gender identity. The debate has spread throughout America today. Transgender bathrooms have been discussed in politics, education, and even criminal cases. Both sides of the debate offer valid evidence to support their claims. The only compensation
The rights of the LGBTIQ community has changed in the past years. From marriage equality to recognition of a third gender, the LGBTIQ community has gained more freedom. On the other hand, LGBTIQ individuals are still being discriminated and there is continuous debate on the transgender bathroom policies. According to Winkler and Lê Phan (2016), in the state of North Carolina a law known as “House Bill 2” passed, which determined that transgender individuals have access to public bathrooms based on the person’s biological sex. The law lead to harassment, assaults, and abuse towards transgender individuals in bathrooms. The UN General Assembly argues that everyone has the human right to sanitation without discrimination.
Coming out as a transgender, identifying with a gender expression that differs from the assigned sex, has proven to be quite difficult through the ages. While the acceptance of transgender people has grown significantly higher throughout the years, people’s stance on them are still quite divided, and the uphill battle for transgender rights has proven this. Just giving transgenders the right to simply go to the bathroom they identify with has shown to be controversial according to the TIME cover Battle of the Bathroom. The TIME magazine makes sure to note the problem defiantly “far more than public facilities” (Scherer par. 9). Transgender rights are a problem that Jamison Green, president for World Professional Association for Transgender Health, thoroughly addresses in a report written by Alan Greenblatt for CQ Researcher. Jamison Green’s specific purpose in that report is to justify why transgender people deserve basic human rights like everybody else, as shown in society, through his use of facts, qualifiers, figurative language, counterarguments, and appeals to logic and values.
In summary, the transgender desegregation of restrooms is a contentious topic that includes the topics of safety, discrimination, privacy and economics. Safety is a concern that can involve physical and sexual assault for the transgender person and cisgender women may become victims of sexual predators using restrooms under the guise of being transgender. Discrimination against restroom access for transgender individuals is currently complicated by a mixed-bag of laws and these would need to be amended to grant full access. Privacy is an issue that could merely be a perception bias that would need to be overcome in order to raise a level of comfort. The economic feasibility of transgender desegregation of restrooms is a mixed-bag that may require
In past generations, it has been clear to society that males and females use segregated bathrooms. It is also known that the rate of transgender people has been growing over the past years. Transgender people constantly face troubles when using a bathroom in public. Nevertheless, as society has become more aware of the transgender population and the issues that they face, many schools have had to decide how they will respond about the issue of school bathrooms when students identify themselves as transgender. A school should be able to provide separate facilities based on sex, but must allow transgender students access to the facility which matches their gender identity.
and the CUNY Law School in Queens. On the other hand, some consider a gender-neutral bathroom to be even more alienating to the transgender community, furthering the hold of traditional gender binary by placing transgender individuals in a completely separate bathroom. This solution could also off cis individuals the opportunity of the trans group. As effective as this solution is, it will not entirely eradicate transphobic violence or abuse.
Many may wonder what being a transgender person really is, a lot of people may see or refer to it as someone who has gone gender transformation, or is confused with who they are. The word transvestite is very much used when referring to a person who identifies with the opposite gender, the word 'Transvestite' itself originated in 1910 by the well known German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, who also founded the Berlin institute which was where the first 'sex change' surgeries took place. 'Transsexual' was not used until 1949, the word 'transgender' not until 1971, and 'trans not until 1996, but they all refer to the same thing. The idea of being transgender goes as far back as 1503 BC to the Egyptians. It was believed that their second
Stores and different establishments around the world are having to face a difficult challenge of letting people go into gendered bathrooms they assign themselves to, or having to enforce the rule of boys in boys and girls in girls. There are many cases of this being shown in today's world. Target was the first of letting people chose what bathroom suites them based on their choice of gender, and now they are revoking it due to complications and backlash from customers, instead they are now making a compromise that suites all but will cost them up to twenty million dollars. Although many people will say gender bathrooms are foolish because gender is a choice, they protect the user, and they
There’s an ongoing battle in the State of Texas over who should be allowed to use public restrooms. Specifically, which restrooms should transgenders use. There’s strong opposition to legislation regulating bathroom use. Many Texans argue we should all use restrooms based on our biological sex (sex as stated on our birth certificates) but there is strong opposition arguing we should be able to use restrooms based on our Gender Identity (what sex one identifies themselves as). Those against transgenders using the “wrong” restroom suggest it is potentially putting other users at risk of encountering a sexual predator. While many are arguing if a person identifies as a