Recently, the Obama administration has urged schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom of which gender they identify with. This has caused a huge commotion in the social and political world.

The United States has a long history of hate. With slavery, Native American oppression, anti-semitism, and homophobia all on record in our country, the question is always who are we going to hate next? The answer right now is the transgender community.

The transgender community, though not new, is definitely new to the eyes of most people. Because of this, no one really knows how to react to or how to understand the proper rights this community deserves. All this negativity about letting people use a bathroom, or just granting them rights in general needs to stop. Thinking back on the United States’ history of hatred is proof of that. Most people today look back on things like slavery and civil rights and its baffles them that simply a skin color could fuel such a strong hatred. Of course, there are people today that still have feel hatred based on skin color but most of the country has moved passed that.

If all of a sudden segregation was reinstated, there would be quite an uproar. On the surface, the issue of civil rights from the 1960s and the issue of transgender rights of the 2010s seem very different. But boiled down they are the same. In the ages of slavery and segregation, people were being discriminated against and degraded for their skin color and ethnicity. Something they could not control about themselves and should not have to control. Now, people are being discriminated against for identifying as the gender they feel represents their soul the best. That is also something which is uncontrollable.

All of this fuss about letting transgender people use the bathroom of the gender they identify with, though it is terrible and unfair how people view this as wrong, it is hopefully shedding some light on the issue of transgender rights. The transgender community is unfortunately the current subject of America’s never ending hate, and hopefully, this changes sooner rather than later.