The controversy surrounding the "transgender bathroom policy" at Target is growing daily. Those on the opposing side are signing a petition to boycott Target. Those on the supporting side are cheering and actually shopping at Target MORE! I've kept mum for awhile, just trying to gather my thoughts on the topic. I wanted to listen to all sides of the argument and see where my opinion fell after the fact. So here goes......
First of all, the argument for the opposing side is namely based on the idea that "a man could pretend to be transgender just to get in the bathroom and assault your wife or child." In other words, the concern is not about transgender people (as a whole) but with child predators and the like. Here's a little nugget of information to think on.... what makes you think that predators would even bother to "pretend" to be transgender? Predators have been sneaking into bathrooms for decades. They don't need a policy to do it. You should ALWAYS be concerned about your safety and your family's safety (boys too) in public restrooms. That said, a policy that allows transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice will make absolutely no difference in whether or not predators are coming in to assault your family. The bigger risk, unfortunately, is that the transgender individuals will be assaulted themselves. Statistically they are assaulted in alarming numbers and it's just not okay. A piece of paper or a sign or a policy has nothing to do with whether or not a predator will come into the bathroom; it's like saying that a "no gun zone" sign will keep a gunman out.
A second argument is that "a man could come into the bathroom with your wife or child and flash their junk at them." This partially goes back to my last point but partially goes to another: why do you think this is limited to bathrooms? If your concern is that your daughter might see a penis in a Target bathroom, you are ignoring the fact that this can happen almost anywhere. Men (or women) that are going to flash you their "junk" are going to do it wherever they choose. You're worried about the bathroom in Target; meanwhile, this guy does it in the produce section at the supermarket. Again, I present the argument that you are confusing transgender people with mentally disturbed flashers. You have likely used the bathroom with a transgender person more often than you know....guess what, you were not affected in any way.
"Well it's simple. If you have a penis, use the men's bathroom. If you have a vagina, use the women's bathroom." Look, you can agree or disagree with whether or not you're born transgender (the same way you can argue whether or not you're born homosexual). The argument has nothing to do with the point on this. The fact is that transgender people often feel as if they were born in the wrong body. This argument is hard to debate but I will say that it's definitely not "simple."
"Well they're just being politically correct." No one cringes more at politically correct hoopla than I do but this is not about being politically correct; it's about being compassionate. It's about recognizing a "group" (for lack of better word) of people who just want to be able to do a simple human function (like urinate) where they feel comfortable. 99% of transgender people are not going to draw attention to themselves walking into a bathroom anywhere. They just want to poop in peace. It's as simple as that.
"Well I don't want some dude watching me pee." Well then close the stall door. A WHOOOOOLE lot of the people arguing this point have probably never even USED the bathroom in Target. Some "dude" is in the bathroom for the same reason you are and, guess what, they're going to close and lock the stall door and do the same thing you're doing: pee. The idea that transgender people will use this policy as some sort of excuse to be a sneaky perv is absolutely ridiculous and demoralizing (but I'll get to that in a second). Do YOU go into bathrooms and peer over the stalls or peek through the cracks? Nope. You're a normal person that looks under the stall enough to see if there's feet there and then waits for your turn. You close the stall door, lock it, pee, wash your hands (hopefully) and move on. Come on now.
I guess I want to close this by saying that this whole thing seems like it's very demoralizing to transgender people. You can argue the logistics of transgenderism all you want and agree to disagree with people but this debate over this policy is really hurtful on one side. I heard it said that "it wasn't about water fountains during segregation and it's not about bathrooms now" and it was summed up so perfectly. Before you start throwing hateful terminology around and grouping transgender individuals in with perverts, think about what you're saying and how small-minded and ridiculous you sound. To all the transgender people out there having to listen to this debate and hear the hateful things being spewed from people's mouths, I am so sorry that you're having to deal with this. Know that there are a whole lot of us that are more educated on transgender/transsexual folks that are fighting to break down the walls of ignorance.
If you AREN'T educated on the topic, here is a good starting point....
Source:
http://www.medicaldaily.com/what-difference-between-transsexual-and-transgender-facebooks-new-version-its-complicated-271389
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