Transgender Bathroom Debate

“Bathroom bills” are bills that restrict transgender access to the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity. They are popping up all over the country and recently in Texas, the Senate State

Most don’t explicitly look into the complexity of a transgender person’s life and all the questions or problems one might face: Do I use the men’s or the women’s bathroom? Is it appropriate to use this locker room? Those are only two of the many questions a transgender person might run into on a daily basis because of how others would see the situation, how the people who may have a sneaking suspicion that the woman they saw go into the ladies’ bathroom isn’t actually female by their definition, or how it could also seem strange to see that same person go into the mens’ bathroom. These all lead to dysphoria in any person’s situation in public places due to the fact that many choose to taunt or mock the person; however, with the help of Title IX these questions could start to vanish from the thoughts of many transgender students which Blad exemplifies with a quote in her article:

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,

Not only did the authors believe that opponents are using these claims to support their arguments, they also believed that it placed stereotypes on men or an imagined male, to be threats and women to be weak and in need of protection. Schilt and Westbrook argued that opponents did not take into account that transgender individuals report facing an immense amount of discrimination and are in need of protection as well. They also argued that their opponent’s claims “generate fear and misunderstanding around transgender people along with the suggestion that transgender people are less deserving of protection than cisgender women and children (Bathroom Battlegrounds and Penis Panics, para. 6).” Although they mentioned that they were not suggesting that sexual assault is not a serious issue, they argued that public restrooms rarely have such assaults. In addition, they argued that based on empirical data, transgender people in the Unites States are much more likely to face violence rather than creating it. They also emphasized that their opponents were not able to site these claims of an actual case of bathroom sexual assault, rather that it was just from their deep-rooted cultural fears.

Kansas passed a bill on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 that denies transgender students from using the restroom, as well as other facilities retaining to gender “when they are in various states of undress” (Committee on Federal and State Affairs, page 1; sec. 2; subparagraph b; lines 8-12), based on their preferred gender and forces them to use the restroom based on their birth sex. This bill was passed by the Committee on Federal and State Affairs in order to protect the privacy of students and to prevent “potential embarrassment, shame and psychological injury to students” (Committee on Federal and State Affairs, page 1; sec. 2; subparagraph f; lines 27-29). This bill also allows for students to sue a transgender student for two-thousand five hundred dollars if they are found in the “wrong” restroom. Forcing the transgender students in Kansas to use the restroom based on biology is wrong because forcing someone to disregard a personal preference to accommodate another is inhumane and has potentially deadly effects.

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.

People tend to look passed the ones whom this debate affects. A survey was taken of over 2,000 transgender college students on the effects of the bathroom debate. This survey showed that the suicide attempt rate "increased 40% among those who said they had been denied access to a bathroom" (Scherer et al n.p.). People who are not considered normal by societal standards may have a hard time coping with the hate they receive. This hate can lead to extremes such as the attempt to commit suicide. The allowance or denial of access to a bathroom led to an increase in suicide attempt rates. Those not affected by the issue do not realize the emotional and physical hardship that transgender people go through. In Washington, D.C., a survey of 100 transgender people was taken. In this survey, "70% said they had been denied restroom access or harassed, and 58% said they has avoided going out in public because they feared being able to find a bathroom" (Scherer et al n.p.). The accommodations of both sides of the debate would allow everyone to feel safer in his or her own community. Family restrooms allow complete privacy and do not discrimination based on gender. Access to these types of facilities would never be denied. Allowing people access to the bathroom they choose opened an entire new side of the issue in

Critics of the measure, known as House Bill 2 or HB 2, will argue to U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder in Winston-Salem that it is stigmatizing and leaves transgender people vulnerable to The state in March became the first in the country to restrict access to publicly-operated, single-sex restrooms and changing facilities to the gender on a birth certificate rather than the gender with which someone identifies harassment and violence.

Some in favor of transgender bathrooms claim that anyone can be anything they want. Although this is true, you can’t just eat someone because you think you are a lion, and the same goes with gender. Olipocket on debate.org argued, “If you have a penis, regardless of what you look like on the outside, then you need to use the men's room. If you have a vagina, regardless of what you look like on the outside, then you need to use the women's room.” This proves that no matter who you think you are, it can’t top who you really are. If you are really a man then you use the men’s bathroom. It’s that simple. Not only is this common sense, it also protects people’s privacy. Women don’t want men looking at them in the bathroom. So, in order to avoid complexity in the laws, if you have male parts, you go in the men’s and same with women. Next, Dann states, “The transgendered person however is NOT a woman, and unfortunately never will be. They have created their own artificial gender - Transgender. They still possess an Adam's apple. They still possess other immutable male qualities too. Although they may see themselves as women, the rest of the world and, most importantly, those who they will be allowed to share that most private of places, the bathroom, with, won’t see them as such.” Even transgender women are artificial. They aren’t real. Even if they have a fake vagina,

It is simple for heterosexuals to pick which bathroom to go to, but for transgender person it “can become fraught with anxiety or even danger” (Windfield 107). The transforation from man to woman or woman to man for transgender people can make them “feel more whole or real” (107). One problem that we seem to miss is how homeless LGBT teens continue to rise in the United states because of how bold the this generation is becoming about their individuality (109). The main reason for them to physically leaving home and becoming homeless is because of the reactions their family and friends have when coming out as who they are. One of the biggest processes in showing your gender identity is how you look. Most of the time a person will change their haircut, remove bodily hair, take hormones to change their voice, chest, and breast. Most of the time before a sex change the person will “undergo hormone therapy” (“Gender Identity Disorder”) to help before they transition. The most important thing for the people who are changing for accepting their life choice to be who they are is that they are doing it because they want to change

As ruled in the 1896 Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson, separate but equal is not equal. This ruling may have been upwards of one hundred years ago, but North Carolina legislators seem to have dropped it from their memories. Governor Pat McCrory signed HB2, or the Public Facilities Safety and Privacy Act, into law on March 23, 2016. HB2, popularly dubbed “The Bathroom Bill”, prevents transgender or non-gender conforming individuals from using the bathroom corresponding to the gender they identify as. They instead must use the facilities for the gender listed on their birth certificate. Not only is the law wildly transphobic, but it is outright dangerous - it will only further ostracize trans people and put them in the way of even more violence.

In the long fight of the LGBTQ+ community to gain equal rights in the United States, recent issues have come up against transgender people using public restrooms, specifically youth in high schools. One of the most publicized controversies in recent news is the state of North Carolina passing a law against trans people using the bathroom that does not match the gender on their birth certificate. Since March of 2016, trans people have had to choose between their comfort or their own personal safety. Opposition to the transgender cause have argued that allowing trans people to use the restroom of their preference will cause sexual attacks on cisgendered people using the bathroom, specifically coming from transgender women who were biologically

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.