As rights for transgender people are debated across the country, a surprising amount of attention is on where they can go to the bathroom.
by Alan Greenblatt | October 30, 2015
A gender-neutral bathroom at the University of California, Irvine. (FlickrCC/Ted Eytan)
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Four years ago, Massachusetts passed an anti-discrimation law offering protection to transgender people in areas such as employment, housing, lending and education. Legislators specifically avoided including public accommodations in the law, but the idea that transgender people would use bathrooms and locker rooms that didn't conform with the sex they were assigned at birth caused concern for some.
That issue is still controversial. The legislature is now considering a public accommodations bill that once again has triggered heated opposition.
"We think it's important for all Massachusetts citizens to have their privacy and security protected in intimate spaces," said Andrew Beckwith, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute. "If this were passed, women would be forced to change next to anatomical, biological males."
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The same argument is taking place all over the country. Legislators in states including Florida, Minnesota, Nevada and Wisconsin have introduced bills that would limit students or adults to using bathrooms appropriate to the gender listed on their birth certificates, as opposed to their current gender identity.
This spring, an anti-discrimination ordinance in Charlotte, N.C., was defeated due to objections about bathroom privacy. In Houston, voters might reject an anti-discrimination measure on Tuesday for the same reason.
Houston Astros star Lance Berkman is aiding the opposition.
"My wife and I have four daughters and Proposition 1 will allow troubled men who claim to be women to enter women's bathrooms, showers and locker rooms," he said in ad against the anti-discrimination measure.
Transgender advocates say this is all just fear-mongering.
"There's this fear that this person who is different is different in a way that's predatory," said Robin McHaelen, executive director of True Colors, a social service nonprofit that works with LGBT youth in Connecticut. "As far as I know, there's never been an incident with a transgender person assaulting someone in a bathroom. People just want to pee in peace."
SHARELINE "People just want to pee in peace."
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That same assertion has been made by groups such as the Human Rights Campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union. Officials in states with public accommodation provisions, such as Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa and Oregon, have stated they have seen no evidence of sexual assault or other such problems as a result.
By contrast, there have been documented examples of transgender people being harassed or assaulted for going in the "wrong" bathroom, including a videotaped attack in 2012 in Maryland that went viral on social media.
"You just want to use the bathroom and get back to what you're doing," said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. "The safest way, the most appropriate way, the way to bother the people least is for people to use the restroom that's appropriate for their gender identity."
If people misbehave in a public restroom, they should be prosecuted, Keisling said -- but that's true whether the person is transgender or not.
But according to Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, which is now collecting signatures for a ballot measure to repeal a California law that allows transgender people to use facilities of their choice, the simple presence of a transgender woman in a women's bathroom or locker room can make young girls feel "visually violated."
"The issue is not that transgenders are somehow prone to attacking other users of a bathroom or a locker room," he said. "The focus is on the right of a young girl to not feel herself as having her privacy violated in the most intrusive way."
The proposed California initiative would impose fines of at least $4,000 when transgender people use facilities according to the gender they weren't assigned at birth. It would make exceptions, however, for individuals whose gender status has been confirmed by medical examination or the courts.
Last month, a federal court ruled against a transgender boy who sought to use the boy's room at a Virginia high school. The judge ruled he would have to use a single-stall bathroom instead. The Obama administration weighed in on the case, with justice and education department lawyers writing a brief arguing that "prohibiting a transgender male student from using boys' restrooms, when other non-transgender male students face no such restriction, deprives him not only of equal educational opportunity but also of equal status, respect and dignity."
Signs on the lawn of people protesting an anti-discrimination ordinance in San Antonio, Texas. (David Kidd)
The number of people, and public bathrooms, this is likely to impact is rather low. The most widely-cited recent estimate, from the Williams Institute at UCLA's law school, suggests that there are less than 700,000 transgender adults in the United States.
But transgender equality has emerged as a civil rights battle, raising issues that are familiar from earlier movements. Worries about mandated unisex bathrooms fueled some of the opposition to a federal Equal Rights Amendment to protect women in the 1970s. Black people in the 1950s and 1960s were seeking not just voting and employment rights but the chance to use the same pools, drinking fountains, lunch counters -- and bathrooms -- as white people.
In a recent opinion piece on Huffington Post, Massachusetts state Rep. Paul Heroux made this comparison explicit.
"The argument that a non-transgender person feels uncomfortable with a transgender person using the same bathroom ... is the same argument that was once made of people of color using public bathrooms, seating on public transportation, public drinking fountains and more," Heroux wrote. "It is a lack of understanding at best, and hateful at worst."
Everyone else is just supposed to suck up their discomfort? But, why shouldn't they Trans suck up his/her discomfort and just use the anatomically correct restroom? Why does the discomfort of the trans trump everyone else?
I have news for you. You have used the restroom with a transgender person - you just didn't know it. It's that big of a non-issue. They go in, they pee in a stall, and they wash their hands and leave just like you and I.
Transgender people in a locker room setting won't walk around with their parts exposed. They don't want to cause a ruckus. They will change in a stall like all other shy people - and no one will be any wiser to it. A typical transgender person doesn't like that their genitals don't match their identity and they don't want any more attention called to that fact than their own mind is already doing.
I have used the men's' restroom several times when the women's facilities were not adequate to serve all the women at a location. I walked in, went into a stall, peed, washed my hands and left. The men didn't even blink - and I was dressed obviously as a women.
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Out of all the lies I have told, "just kidding" is my favorite !
And if a middle school aged transgender child uses the bathroon, no one is going to know the difference. If the child is at a school where no one knows what he/she presented as in the past, they won't know he/she is in the "wrong" bathroom. The child looks and is dressed like a girl and uses the girl's bathroom. Who would possibly know if there was a penis under that skirt? No one.
Again, you have used the bathroom with a transgendered person in the past. You just didn't know it. And neither would anyone in the middle school bathroom. I didn't see my friends' private parts when they went to the bathroom in middle school. This will be no different.
-- Edited by Mellow Momma on Sunday 1st of November 2015 12:12:08 PM
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Out of all the lies I have told, "just kidding" is my favorite !
I can emphatically say that I never saw ANY of my friends' private parts, ever. I saw a few close friends in their bra and panties but not nude. So for all I know one of them WAS transgendered. I have no way of knowing for certain.
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Out of all the lies I have told, "just kidding" is my favorite !
No. It was not a requirement and the showers didn't even work. We sprayed ourselves with perfume and spray deodorant and moved on with our day. I honestly don't think any of us ever really broke a sweat anyway.
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Out of all the lies I have told, "just kidding" is my favorite !
The " no big deal" thing could apply to them too right?
They should use the bathroom that their outward appearance matches.
I took a HUGE risk using the men's restroom. I could have been seriously hurt. I think someone who looks like a woman using the womans' restroom is a non issue.
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Out of all the lies I have told, "just kidding" is my favorite !
I put myself in danger, but I chose to take that risk based on how badly I needed to use the restroom. I don't think it's right to ask a trans person to take that risk every time they need to use the restroom. If someone who looks like a man enters the women's restroom because they have female genitalia, I bet some women will get upset, call the cops, etc and the trans person will have to go out of their way to prove that is where society wants them to use the bathroom - probably by showing a license or birth certificate if they have one on them. What if they don't? How humiliating.
Look like a girl, use the girls' restroom - no one will even blink an eye.
I have a female friend who looks very manly. She has had women accost her in the women's rest room telling her she is in the wrong one and one person started screaming and making a scene. She frequently uses the men's restroom to put everyone else at ease. And she isn't even trans. She just looks manly.
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Out of all the lies I have told, "just kidding" is my favorite !
Why should they use the bathroom that matches their appearance? Because you think so? Most of them look like the other sex in drag so what appearance is that? If u have a penis then use the mens room. Pretty simple.
Why should they use the bathroom that matches their appearance? Because you think so? Most of them look like the other sex in drag so what appearance is that? If u have a penis then use the mens room. Pretty simple.
Well I just gave you one example of why it isn't that simple.
How do you know everyone in the bathroom has the same plumbing? You don't.
And you haven't seen very many transgender people if the ones you saw look like they were on drag. I have seen quite a few that were more feminine looking than a lot of women I know. And I have seen some trans men who look far more manly than some men. The fact is, you don't know because they don't owe you an explanation of what's in their pants. And they walk and pee amongst you and you don't even know it.
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Out of all the lies I have told, "just kidding" is my favorite !
Neither do the non trans need to have their discomfort explained away. So it it is no big deal then they can just use the proper bathroom.
The proper bathroom is the one that causes the least discomfort for others. And that is the bathroom that corresponds with their outward appearance.
If a female looking person enters the female bathroom and uses the stall, no one notices. If a male looking person with female genitals uses the female bathroom - everyone would pitch a fit. Trust me. I have seen it happen - except the person WAS a female.
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Out of all the lies I have told, "just kidding" is my favorite !
I have known, I mean spent considerable time with, cross dressers.
While most were very, very good, you could still tell the difference.
I honestly don't know why we don't treat these Transgender people for the mental illness they are afflicted with.
We wouldn't let any other person with mental illness continue to hurt themselves.
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
We wouldn't let any other person with mental illness continue to hurt themselves.
Sure we do. We might try to intervene, but adequate treatment options are few and far between, and frequently ineffective.
Walk around a city, almost any city, and look at the mentally ill people living on the streets.
And actually the courts have ruled that the mentally ill have the right to continue on without meds or intervention if they so choose. They have the right to NOT be treated if they arent hurting anyone but themselves.
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Out of all the lies I have told, "just kidding" is my favorite !
Neither do the non trans need to have their discomfort explained away. So it it is no big deal then they can just use the proper bathroom.
The proper bathroom is the one that causes the least discomfort for others. And that is the bathroom that corresponds with their outward appearance.
If a female looking person enters the female bathroom and uses the stall, no one notices. If a male looking person with female genitals uses the female bathroom - everyone would pitch a fit. Trust me. I have seen it happen - except the person WAS a female.
You seem to be know what causes the 'least discomfort" of others. A man in drag pretending to be a woman is going to cause a lot of discomfort. So, again, why is the discomfort of the TRANS of more importance than anyone else's?
I am saying that you have already used the bathroom with a trans person and didn't even know it. I have seen trans people use the restroom and no one even looked twice. I have seen a "butch" looking woman use the women's restroom and all heck broke loose. When someone who looks like and is dressed like a man tries to use the women's restroom because they happen to have a vagina - but you don't know that - the exact thing you are worried about, the discomfort of others, is going to be the problem. People will freak out. When someone who is dressed as a woman and presents as a woman tries to use the restroom, most women don't even notice because they are busy going about their business.
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Out of all the lies I have told, "just kidding" is my favorite !
And all of my responses are based on what will cause the least discomfort for the others in the restroom - NOT about what will cause the least discomfort for the trans person. So I am not sure why you keep bringing up that point.
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Out of all the lies I have told, "just kidding" is my favorite !
I am saying that you have already used the bathroom with a trans person and didn't even know it. I have seen trans people use the restroom and no one even looked twice. I have seen a "butch" looking woman use the women's restroom and all heck broke loose. When someone who looks like and is dressed like a man tries to use the women's restroom because they happen to have a vagina - but you don't know that - the exact thing you are worried about, the discomfort of others, is going to be the problem. People will freak out. When someone who is dressed as a woman and presents as a woman tries to use the restroom, most women don't even notice because they are busy going about their business.
No, you don't know who I have used the bathroom with so that is a pretty big presumption. And, no they don't LOOK like a woman just because they have a dress on. They might look like a perv. Most trans people don't have access to Hollywood plastic surgeons like Bruce Jenner. And, why should my daughter have to be subject to these kinds of issues in Middle school?
And nd when this person walked into the women's restroom you would not be worried at all, you would roll out the red carpet and not even blink
ok. Call me crazy but I don't exactly believe it's the trans person's comfort we are talking about. It IS about the other people in the restroom and you know exactly what would happen if this man walked into the women's bathroom - someone would call the cops.
what about MY discomfort ? or that of my nieces and their friends ? does that matter AT ALL ? or are we all to be coerced / forced by the government to accept / deal with the problem by accomodating the supposed " discomfort " of a group that comprise .00000000002 0/0 of the population ?
whether YOU are uncomfortable with it or not is irrelevant--you are ONE person--not the overwhelming majority of the population
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" the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. "--edmund burke
While I agree with Lily on this, it is an illness, I also agree with MM. If you look like a woman, use the women's room. Look like man, use the men's room. Use the stalls and close the door. No one would know the difference. I understand men don't even look at each other when they are in there.
Personally, when I was in Japan, I used the unisex bathrooms. I walked past a man using the urinal and went to the stalls. It was no big deal. I used a unisex in England, too. The stall doors were floor to ceiling with no gaps like we have here. Again, no biggie.
