Contrary to some people's beliefs, gender and sex do not have the same denotation. The former is a social construct; we assign gender to children as soon as they are born when we give them blue blankets as opposed to pink blankets. When we look at a person, we assign them a gender in our head based on what society has taught us about the physical appearance of both genders. However, biological sex is assigned according to a person's reproductive functions. A person's gender and sex could easily not be the same thing. Transgender is a term "used to describe people whose gender identity differs from the sex the doctor marked on their birth certificate." While some people will undergo hormone treatments, or even medical procedures, being transgender is not dependent upon medical intervention. Gender identity is all about your own sense of self.
A current hot topic that has been circulating the internet is whether transgender men and women should use the restroom that matches their biological sex or their self assigned gender. While I think that this is a no-brainer, there are many arguments against allowing these people to use the restroom that they most identify with. I am here to explain why the most popular arguments are invalid.
Allowing "men" into the women's bathroom is a danger to women and children.
When a woman identifies as transgender, she is no longer a man. She is a woman, regardless of whether or not she has gone through medical intervention. She is a woman, so let's just start there. She is not a man. Additionally, if a transgender woman has gone through medical intervention to change her sexual identity from a man to a woman, she is just as much of a woman as a cisgender woman.
Well, OK, so transgender people aren't going to harm my children, but predators will take advantage of this new policy and just say they're transgender in order to come into the opposite sex's restroom and harm my children.
You're not wrong. There is always that chance that someone will go into the restroom and harm your children. But that could happen without this policy in place. If a man or woman wants to go into the opposite sex's restroom for the sole purpose of preying on children, they will do it whether transgender individuals are allowed to go into their appropriate bathrooms or not. This policy is not going to make it any more common than it already is.
Also, cis women and men in the women's or men's bathroom are just as likely to harm your child of the same sex as them. Not to mention, sexual abuse does not commonly occur by strangers. "Stranger danger" is something we put into the minds of parents and children to make them extra cautious, when in reality 3 out of 4 children who have been assaulted were victimized by someone they knew very well. In addition to this, these sexual assaults are rarely in public areas. 69% of teen sexual assaults reported occurred in the residence of the victim, the offender, or the residence of another individual.
Well, then, we should have a bathroom just for "those" people.
Ah, yes. Why not just segregate these individuals to their own space because we don't want them in ours. History repeats itself, huh? Anyway. The amount of injustice that transgender people already face is extraordinary -- why would we add something like this to that list. For example, transgender people are four times more likely to live in poverty and experience unemployment rates twice as high as the general population. Ninety percent report experiencing harassment, mistreatment, or discrimination in their job, and they still cannot serve in the U.S. military. Forty-one percent of respondent reported attempting suicide, compared to 1.6 percent of the general population. It is no surprise that this dramatically high percentage of suicide attempt is due to the injustice they face everyday. Why should we add to this with an issue as little as what bathroom to use? People just have to pee.
If we do not allow transgender people to use the bathroom that most suits their gender, we could be putting them in great danger, Fifty-three percent of 6,450 transgender people reported being harassed in a place of public accommodation (such as a restroom) in a recent survey. Just think about it, a transgender woman has to use the restroom, but the law will not let her use the women's bathroom. Instead, she has to use the men's bathroom because it says male on her birth certificate. This could be 15-year-old girl like Jazz Jennings. We would be sending a 15-year-old girl into a men's bathroom. How is that right? Or, this woman could be Laverne Cox. Sending her into a men's bathroom just because of her birth certificate is equally unfair.
In addition, sending a transgender man into a woman's restroom could cause quite a commotion, as well. Imagine Loren Rex Cameron walking into the women's restroom because his birth certificate says female. How humiliating this would be for these people who have been battling society's views of them their entire lives.
I think with everything else that is going on in the world, we really need to take a step back and realize that this should be a non-issue. Why even question it? Allowing transgender people into the bathroom that they feel most comfortable going into will not in any way add an element of danger for you, or anyone else.
