The Charlotte Observer looked at the bathroom debate from a different angle in an editorial published last week:
What happens when a biological male who identifies as a female uses the women’s restroom?
The question is at the core of a struggle – and a suddenly intense
debate – over the rights of transgender individuals. That battle
transcends what happens in bathrooms, certainly, but the issue has
prompted a wave of unnecessary fears and unnecessary laws, including
North Carolina’s HB 2.
This week, the Obama administration tried to get in front of the clash, first with a Department of Justice lawsuit over HB 2, then on Friday with a letter to U.S. school districts ordering them to acknowledge and accommodate transgender students. The letter doesn’t carry the weight of law, but it does carry a big stick – the implied withholding of federal dollars from school districts that don’t abide by the administration’s guidelines.
That threat is sure to bring more heat to the bathroom debate, but eventually the decree should have the opposite effect. It will bring acceptance, as these measures do, by showing that the answer to what happens in bathrooms is a lot less fearsome than the question.
Republicans in North Carolina have made the most of those fears, framing HB 2 as a law that protects the safety and privacy of women and children. Those safety issues are political fiction – non-transgender men wouldn’t have been allowed in women’s bathrooms under the Charlotte ordinance that HB 2 killed, and the 200 or so cities with similar ordinances have had no incidents involving bathroom predators.
That leaves the issue of privacy and the oft-stated notion of women and girls sharing bathrooms and locker rooms with someone who has different genitalia. It’s an image that’s uncomfortable even for some who are sympathetic to the transgender cause.
The administration’s letter addresses that uneasiness head on, at least with regards to schools. The letter includes a 25-page attachment detailing “emerging practices” at U.S. districts that already are supporting transgender students. Along with policies on issues such as dress codes and transgender student records, the document provides examples of how districts address the privacy needs of all students in bathrooms and locker rooms.
In Washington state, guidelines urge schools to provide all students access to an alternative restroom or changing area. In New York, one principal determined that students could be given more privacy by having curtains installed alongside benches in locker rooms. In Kentucky, one district offered both curtains and private changing areas, plus separate changing schedules for students wanting privacy.
The measures follow a simple premise: Offer those who are uncomfortable a chance to be comfortable, but give choice to everyone instead of taking it away from some.
That Kentucky district and others have discovered something else that’s instructive, by the way: There have been no incidents involving locker rooms and bathrooms because of transgender policies. It is, eventually, a non-issue.
This is what the Obama administration nudged the rest of the country toward Friday. Yes, the thought of male genitalia in girls’ locker rooms – and vice versa – might be distressing to some. But the battle for equality has always been in part about overcoming discomfort – with blacks sharing facilities, with gays sharing marriage – then realizing that it was not nearly so awful as some people imagined.
24 comments:
Finally something that makes sense.
Maybe someone can answer a question for me. Who is going to decide the person in the bathroom next to them is not in the bathroom that matches their birth certificate? I have seen some real ugly women and I have seen some very feminine men. Never have seen a person carrying a birth certificate to the bathroom.
Do we ever as a country say "screw" the minority and pursue what the majority wants?
I don't like the transgender culture. It does NOTHING to improve society.
Kind of like drug dealers, thieves, long in the tooth politicians and pet rocks.
4:21, treating people with compassion and common sense does not have to "improve society" to be justified. And yet, common sense and compassion always do "improve society."
(Leaving aside my strong suspicion that you have no clue what a "transgender culture" is. I know some trans folks, and they have no separate culture. The very term "transgender" implies an effort to fit in.)
@6:27 - True. So let's start thinking about treating "with compassion and common sense" the 99.97% of the population who have no problem accepting their biologically assigned gender.
*;04, The problem is every once in a while there is a child born that is not perfect. Just by looks it is impossible to be certain if it is a girl or a boy. Now days there are certain tests that can be done to find out which gender the child really is. Not many doctors take the time to do the tests. The gender of the child is decided by the doctor in a very few minutes. He, or she, decided the gender the child will be called the rest of it's life. They only have two choices but sometime they make a mistake.
Imagine living your life as a girl when you know you are a boy. Because a doctor chose the wrong gender you are forced to live your life acting like the wrong gender. Can you imagine starting tomorrow morning living your life as the opposite gender? Don't know about you but I would find it a very hard job.
It may be a small % but think about how you would feel if you were one of that small %.
choice or biological?
as in anything someone can be found who "chose" a certain path but for the vast majority, it's biological. the argument that "if left to themselves, biologically they would die out" doesn't fly. or those with alternative sexual or gender orientations would have died out eons ago. we simply do not understand some of the inner workings of our minds and our bodies. perhaps in time.
Why does this stop at bathrooms? Should the male that thinks he is a female now also be able to play on the women's basketball (or other female sport) team?
11:30 pm What do you think performance enhancing drugs are? Do you not understand that hormones, specifically those that increase levels of testosterone are involved?
Do you not understand that there are people who have higher or lower levels of testosterone or estrogen than normal for a variety of reasons beyond their control in both genders and that this changes how a person looks and feels and performs in life?
Thank you for helping make it obvious that most of those who fear the future do so because they fear what they don't understand and can imagine solutions.
Why does this stop at bathrooms? Should the male that thinks he is a female now also be able to play on the women's basketball (or other female sport) team?
Oh, Lordy......let's don't go there.
8:44 PM
Do you really believe that stupidity that you typed? A doctor
Makes a mistake assigning a gender? Are you out of your mind? It either has a tallywacker or it doesn't. It either has XX or XY chromosomes. The extremely rare times in which neither of the previous guidelines are followed is the only time any special circumstance should be allowed. And it is MUCH rarer than the tranny movement makes it out to be. The fact that the tranny movement wants to lump some DUDE that wishes he was a woman into the same class of people as those with true biological or genetic conditions is a slap in the face to those few people who do have real issues.
As soon as this movement is through, the extreme left will move towards another "cause" to take up in the effort to marginalize the many for the sake of the few. All as a front for their real cause which is to make male Christian white men the enemy.
8:40--- why not? Because it will happen, just like this entire movement happened when predicted back when we were debating gays getting married.
Save this post..... It will happen. Men "who identify with" (what a moronic term, btw) women and mainly vice versa, will make
An attempt to "break down barriers" in realms such as sports and other gender-specific activities. IT. WILL. HAPPEN. Someone will bitch and whine long enough, will sue someone, and/or will enlist the liberal media to ruin any opposition that gets in their way, just as they are doing with this movement and just like they did with the gay marriage movement.
Sheep.
11:30, why even have women's teams and men's teams. How about just teams.
@8:44 Do you realize that intersex births are as common as Downs Syndrome births? Chromosomal disorders happen frequently. And, yes, the medical profession does make mistakes. It isn't nearly as simple as you make it out to be. If you have ever had to watch a family struggle to raise a child with this condition you might be a little more compassionate in your speech. You don't realize how common it is because these children are raised in the shadows. There are a thousand tiny and large wounds from friends, family, the church, and media about how these conditions don't exist, or how they are caused by bad parenting. A little grace and mercy, please.
So will the IRS allow someone who "feels" they are a female but is actually a male be allowed to get a minority tax credit? Where do you house a transgender in federal prison now? Can one get a minority SBA loan because they "feel" like a woman. There are plants more examples one can use that bring this situation to a serious light. I doubt the IRS or the federal prison system will play this game. The usually means if one is allowed, all are allowed. So to allow transgender to do one thing you would have to allow the other. Libtards don't put much thought into their fantasy lifestyle choices they want to force on others.
I felt like superman on Halloween as a kid one year. Didn't mean I could fly or was bullet proof.
I feel like a handicapped, female Native American, can I apply to college and get preferential consideration?
I identify as a citizen of another country, I don't have to play taxes now. So there!
Some people are mixing up something the want with something they have no control over.
Some people know what they are doing and, sadly, a few have no idea.
@8:44 - the people you describe (who are extrodinarily few) are NOT "transgendered". And they ARE recognized at birth or shortly thereafter and appropriate medical treatment is available to them. "Transgendered" people are people with perfectly NORMAL genitalia and chromosones. Their issue is in their MINDS not in their bodies. They are no different than the people who think they are puppies and dress up in custom made dog costumes...yet we don't accomodate THEM by allowing them to pee on every fire hydrant they pass.
6:27 - I'm willing to agree with you that compassion doesn't have to lead to an improved society - But only if you will agree with me that your notion of common sense reflects only your opinion.
Frankly, yours is a flawed premise from the get-go. There is no empirical definition of common sense and you have no evidence that allowing men into girls' bathrooms (for ANY reason) is an example of it.
When you enter an argument by claiming your position is based on 'common sense' you automatically disqualify yourself from participation.
The Tom Heads of this world remain forever pissed that they can't have what they want. They don't want to BE normal and since they have lost the battle to be viewed as normal its now their mission to insist that there IS no normal.
Here is a dose of reality: You can visit Bourbon Street and you can pretend for a little while that you are part of it; but, Bourbon Street will never be normal no matter how loudly you insist that it is.
You can visit Bourbon Street and you can pretend for a little while that you are part of it; but, Bourbon Street will never be normal no matter how loudly you insist that it is.
True dat.......
Normal for one person can be much different than normal for another person. We have too many people thinking their normal should be the normal for everyone else.
It is normal for people to lie, cheat, steal, and kill. I do not like normal.
"Normal for one person can be much different than normal for another person. We have too many people thinking their normal should be the normal for everyone else.
It is normal for people to lie, cheat, steal, and kill. I do not like normal."
^this
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