Think about all the times you've used public washrooms. Now ask yourself how many times someone in a public washroom has openly waved their genitals at you? Not very often, I'm guessing? Now out of the probably minuscule number of people who have waved their genitals at you, how many have been trans folks?
Anectdata here, but I can unequivocally state that I have never ever had a trans woman wave her genitals at me in a public washroom. Although I can't back it up, I'm fairly confident, however that I have at some point in time shared a public washroom with a trans woman without even knowing it, my ignorance of such events likely being a result of the distinct LACK of genital waving in public washrooms.
Which is why i don't get what the big fucking deal is with letting trans people use the washroom that corresponds with their identity. Arizona, can you answer this for me?
If you accept the premise that trans women are women, full stop, you accept that there is no greater threat allowing trans women to use women's facilities. The presence of differing genitalia shouldn't enter into it. I mean, when was the last time someone told you to drop trou or present your birth certificate before allowing you to go pee?
The problem is that a lot of people don't accept this premise, which sucks, because it's really not that difficult to wrap your head around. What makes a woman a woman? Not boobs. I know dudes with nicer boobs than mine. We still accept that the profoundly flat-chested and breast cancer survivors still identify as women. Not a uterus, since I'm sure post-hysterectomy patients still define themselves as women. It's an innate sense of being a woman. It just so happens that some of the people with this sense of womanhood happen to have penises, or have had one at some point.
So instead of freaking out about the possible genitals of whomever you may be asking for an extra square of toilet paper, maybe just figure if you're in the ladies, and their in the ladies, chances are it's a lady. Then worry a little more about what's going on in your own stall.
How would Arizona even enforce this law?
ReplyDeleteSome have suggested birth certificate checks.. Whether that's serious or just hyperbole, I don't know.
DeleteAs an Arizona resident and one who's done a fair amount of research into various state legislators... 1) there is a reasonable chance that "thinking things through" was not on the agenda; 2) there is a reasonable chance that the bill is intended to be hostile to trans* people on its face, regardless of whether the law is ever enforced.
DeleteI think that the concern is about protecting little children in the bathrooms. Usually the perpetrator is a someone who was born a male.
ReplyDelete~Lorna
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Male, yeah. So where do trans women enter into it?
Delete"But what about the children" - the perennial cry of the regressive.
ReplyDeleteI was born a woman. Now I'm a man. I have a beard and body hair. Consider me following you into the women's restroom when this bill passes.
Arizona: why are we hanging on to this state again??
ReplyDeleteDumb shits.
Pearl
Because a lot of really awesome people live here too. :)
DeleteThis is true :)
DeleteI have never and I never will accept the "protecting the children!" argument. This sort of weird gender policing in bathrooms only contributes to an unsafe environment for children. What about older (but still vulnerable) children who are forced to go to the bathroom alone, because their parent is of the opposite sex?
ReplyDeleteThat means young boys have to go off into a room alone full of men, who as anti-trans people are so quick to point out, make up the majority of rapists. And young girls out with their fathers are separated from them, probably waiting alone for their fathers to get out of the bathroom.
That sounds like a real safe situation for children, doesn't it?
It's just so much grossness, trying to exploit children and victims of sexual abuse to hurt trans people.
Whether they can enforce it or not is really not that relevant; what is relevant is that even without teeth it will make cis people feel even more entitled to run trans people out of bathrooms, and more justified in using violence against them.