Recently, over 700,000 people have signed a petition signed by the American Family Association calling to boycott Target for their new inclusive bathroom policy, which allows transgender individuals to use the bathroom that correlates with their gender identity. The American Family Association is an organization based on fundamentalist “Christian” beliefs, and opposes same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion.
While some who signed the petition claim they are not against the LGBTQ+ community, and simply want to “protect the children”, others are openly transphobic and claim that Target’s new bathroom policy is dangerous because “a man can simply say he 'feels like a woman today' and enter the women's restroom”.
For those who don’t know, there is a difference between sex and gender. Any basic, 100-level sociology or gender studies class can confirm that. While sex is biological, gender is a social construct. A transgender woman is a woman, regardless of her genitalia (which is likely isn’t your business anyways), and a transgender man is a man. It doesn’t matter what genitalia they have or were born with; a transgender individual’s gender identity is just as real and valid as any cisgender persons.
Some have expressed worry that Target’s new bathroom policy will “open the door to predators” who could potentially hurt women and young girls. The issue is, only a very very small portion of all men are predators; most men will not commit sexual violence. Secondly, most all sexual assaults are committed by someone the victim knows, such as a friend or acquaintance. Thirdly, a 1998 study on young male sexual assault victims and their perpetrators revealed that most men who commit sexual assault, against both males and/or females, identify as heterosexual. That means that the men that people are so worried about assaulting their daughters, are the same ones who use the bathroom as their sons. And it’s worth knowing that in 2002, one in every eight rape victims were male.
What people often forget is that forcing transgender individuals to use the bathroom that correlates with the sex on their birth certificate often times puts those individuals in danger. In fact, an estimated 50 percent of all transgender individuals will experience sexual violence in their lifetime. According to a 2014 hate violence report by the National Coalition on Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), transgender women were “more likely to experience police violence, physical violence, discrimination, harassment, sexual violence, threats, and intimidation. Transgender women were more likely to experience hate violence in shelters and in public areas.”
Arguments against allowing transgender individuals to use the bathroom that correlates with their gender identity are fundamentally flawed; at their core, they are discriminatory arguments that advocate against allowing transgender people to be who they are. It’s time to stop using children’s safety as a scapegoat for bigotry, and acknowledge that transgender people deserve to be able to safely use the bathroom too.
