When I first learned about segregation in elementary school, I found it hard to believe that many of the students sitting next to me in my classroom would not have been learning, playing and growing up with me if we had been born just 50 years earlier. Learning about discrimination, racism, sexism and genocide has always intrigued me because I have never fully understood why we, as a collective human race, fail to learn from our mistakes. Unfortunately, the majority of the most horrific experiences in the history of humankind have been repeated, to a degree.
As I read about the controversies regarding the "bathroom law" and read accounts from heterosexual men and heterosexual women that describe how they feel about transgender men or women using their bathroom, I know that it is not just about bathrooms. It wasn't about drinking fountains in the '50s, and despite what it appears to be on the surface, it is not about bathroom stalls now. The problem we need to address is our fear of the unknown and our fear of people who are different from us.
As an elementary education major, I work daily with innocent students that see their peers and every one else as equals - despite their race, religion, gender or sexual identity. Since 8 and 9-year-old children can see past these differences, and naturally befriend and respect those around them, it shows that hatred towards people who are different from you is not something we are born with. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, many people develop biases and hatred towards a specific population. We need to stop this trend and allow those 8 and 9-year-old children to grow up loving others - not fearing or hating people who are different from them. We live in a society where we teach our children that we are all equals and stress that, "We are all the same on the inside." But how many adults actually adhere to these childhood lessons?
As a straight female, I personally would not fear using the bathroom with a transgender female if that is what she prefers. As a person, I believe in treating others with respect, loving people for who they are on the inside and trying to see through popular biases. I have read arguments written by people boycotting Target, read accounts by people afraid to send children into bathrooms alone and heard the arguments from women who are afraid to use the bathroom because of recent bathroom policies and laws. I want to make it clear that I understand your fears. The fears that you face when going to a public restroom now are less likely to occur than the fears that transgender men and women face daily. If you say that you oppose allowing people to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with, because you think you deserve to always feel safe using public restrooms, think about the fear that transgender and transitioning men and women face daily when using restrooms. How can you justify that your safety is more than their safety?
While I agree that we need a bathroom law, I do not support the bathroom law being implemented in North Carolina. The bathroom law that we need is one that is created to protect all genders and all people. In this article, I purposefully started many sentences to describe myself as an individual by saying, "As an elementary education major," or "As a straight female." I want you to see me, and every one else, as an individual who is more than just their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. I want you to recognize that humans are so much more than these small parts of their identity and, like the students I work with know, we truly are all the same on the inside. In the next two paragraphs, I used the words "all," "we" and "our" because we are a collective human race. We are the ones who can make a change in how history repeats itself and can stop the fear of the unknown and the fear of people who are different from us. It's our responsibility to protect not only ourselves, but those around us as well.
Allowing people to safely use the bathroom of their biological sex or of their chosen gender is not going to put you in increased danger. We have laws against rape, molestation, privacy-issues in public bathrooms (such as taking photos) and against child molesters going within a certain radius of children - yet all of these laws are broken. The majority of crimes involving children, including abduction, occur by people that the child knows, not strangers in a restroom. Parents are still encouraged to escort children to and from the restroom, laws are still in place to protect privacy in restrooms and people should still feel comfortable using public bathrooms. If there is any situation that you feel uncomfortable in, or if you suspect suspicious activity, alert the nearest employee or law enforcement officer.
We need to create a bathroom law that will be designed to keep all people safe, and in order for it to do this, we all have to take responsibility for the safety of ourselves and others. Despite any religious or political views you may hold towards transgendered individuals, all humans deserve to feel safe using a public restroom and deserve equal treatment.
