A few months ago, on a typical Saturday night, I was out with my friends looking to have fun. The local club we always frequent had a line that was way too long to wait in, so we opted to go somewhere else. Unbeknownst to us, the nightclub we ended up at happened to be having Gay Night that night. Naturally, this attracted a slightly different crowd than the masses of crazed college kids on the dance floor. Regardless, my friends and I still had a fun time hanging out and dancing among ourselves throughout the night.
Eventually, some of us had to use the bathroom. Following typical girl code, we all went to the bathroom together, which is as equally a protective measure as it is a social one. Don’t leave anybody by herself on the dance floor, and don’t let anyone go to the bathroom unaccompanied. While we were in the bathroom, we encountered two very friendly transgender women. They said hello to us and were very polite. At no point did I feel uncomfortable or violated. They asked if I could take a picture of them, and of course, I obliged. Then they thanked me, washed their hands, and left.
At this point, you may be wondering why I am choosing to tell this story.
It doesn’t have any dramatic plot twists and nothing climactic happened. I successfully peed in peace among the company of two lovely transgender women. And that is precisely the reason why I am telling this story.
So many people are terrified of the idea of letting transgender men and women occupy traditionally gendered bathrooms. I understand that to some, it may make you feel uncomfortable because the person you could be peeing next to might try and harm you. But that is nothing new. As a rule of thumb, I never go to a public restroom in the mall or at the movies alone just in case there is a predator. Yet that has nothing to do with the transgender community. Unfortunately, bad people exist everywhere, and if someone is going to harm you, it probably isn’t going to matter whether they identify as transgender.
To the people who may abuse the idea of letting the transgender community use the bathroom they feel safest in by targeting individuals under the guise of being transgender, you are the problem. By using that to your advantage to harm innocent people, you are perpetrating the fear that letting transgender individuals use the bathroom that corresponds to their identity is a problem.
At the end of the day, the two girls I met in the bathroom just wanted to fix their lipstick and pee, just like everybody else. And to deny an entire community the right to be able to do that in peace, without fear of being harmed, is simply unfair.
The transgender community is not the problem. Sexual predators are the problem when it comes to assault and rape, and the fact that transgender individuals are involved in this debate of gendered bathrooms doesn’t change that.
