On Wednesday, March 23, the state of North Carolina passed House Bill 2, the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, which bans transgender people from using the public bathroom that matches their gender identity. However, what a lot of people don’t understand, or are failing to recognize to the extent that they should, is that the HB 2 has a lot more adverse effects than what it originally seems.
The HB 2 is portrayed in the media as being put in place to protect innocent people from experiencing “perversion of the transgenders.” The state of NC is still under the impression that transgender people are perverts, rapists, and child-molesters, and by banning their ability to use the bathroom that correlates with their gender identity, they believe they will further protect these citizens from experiencing any kind of perversion. In all reality, however, transgender people are just trying to use the bathroom, and they should, by no means, be seen and stereotyped in such a way that couldn’t be more inaccurate.
Even my grandmother, a woman of 78 years who is a Southern homophobe born and raised, brought the HB 2 to my attention on my last visit home to my small hometown in North Carolina. She looked me in the eyes and she said, “Honey, I just don’t understand this bill. These poor people just want to go where they feel they belong.” She did admit that she feared a man using the bathroom in the same facility as her, even if he did identify as a female, but she offered the solution that transgender people should just have separate single stall bathrooms. “That way, they’ll feel safe and protected, and so will everyone else,” my grandma said. Even though this does exclude transgender people from the general population, my grandma said it in a way that was absolutely free of hatred or discrimination—something that a homophobic Southern Baptist Christian (who believes that all LGBT people will end up in hell—don’t worry, I’m working on changing her mind!) can accomplish. Yet an entire state, which is built on a constitution of freedom and equality, cannot.
Although I go to school in NC, the campus I’m involved in is fairly liberal. It has a strong LGBT community, as well as a women’s center and constant activism to confront issues involving racism, sexism, and homophobia. It’s interesting to note that there are single stall bathrooms in the student union on my campus—if you ask the management of the school, they will tell you they were placed there for transgender and gender queer usage. However, nowhere in or around these bathrooms, or anywhere on campus for that matter, does it tell the population that these are for transgender individuals. A sign above the private bathroom says: "This bathroom is for use by everyone regardless of gender or gender expression". The campus itself has not confronted the issue of transphobia; in fact, they have avoided talking about it almost completely.
Just adding a single-stall bathroom isn’t enough. If you’re going to have a single-stall bathroom for transgender and gender queer folk, make sure it is known to them that these bathrooms are for them specifically, for their comfort and acceptance. If you were to ask the general campus population if they know that there are single-stall bathrooms, and if they are aware, if they know what they are for, almost all of them would say no to the former, and even more would say no to the latter. The campus is not creating a safe and welcoming environment for its transgender and gender queer students—it’s simply providing them with the tools to build their own.
It’s nice to know, however, that HB 2 is raising resentment, even in the hearts of my friends and family who don’t necessarily approve of transgender people. Just the other day I was speaking with my sister, who has become more accepting of LGBT people since I came out to her last July, and she told me that she was very upset about the bill because “it was stopping people who already have enough discrimination and bullying from doing something that every person should have the right to do" - meaning going to the bathroom in the facility where they feel most comfortable, the one that matches their gender identity.
This bill was passed in order to ensure the safety of cisgender men and women all over the state, but what about the safety of the transgender men and women? By making it illegal for transmen and transwomen to go into a bathroom that matches their gender identity, it raises the likelihood of hate crimes, especially for biological males who identify as female. Men, historically, have been more transphobic than women, especially towards men who identify as women. By forcing transwomen who haven’t had sex reassignment surgery to enter into a male bathroom, the state has single-handedly upped the chances of death, harassment, and other violence towards these trans-people. I can practically see the headlines now: TRANSGENDER FOUND BEATEN TO DEATH IN PUBLIC BATHROOM BY THREE MEN.
There should never be a bill passed that endangers the lives, minds, and bodies the way that this bill does, regardless of what gender identity someone has. Not only does this bill reinforce the general idea that transgender people are “perverted rapists and child-molesters,” but it also negatively affects every person who identifies as a gender opposite of the sex they were assigned at birth. So, really, who is this bill helping?
