Social Justice Embassy

An argument I've seen out there:

"I have nothing against the transgenders. What I'm worried about is that a man might pretend he's a transgender and go into the women's room when my little girl's in there!"

1) If that's your actual concern, then you're worried about cis (not-transgender) men who are predators. How about you target them rather than making life hard for a whole lot of innocent trans folk with whom you supposedly have no issue?

2) If your daughter is that young, perhaps you should be in there with her. Yes, even if you're a dad. Or are you worried somebody will mistake you for one of those predators the media has been telling people to panic over? Maybe what you need is a single-occupancy gender-neutral restroom. Hard to find, aren't they?

3) Nothing stops cis men from entering the women's restroom *now*. They don't need these laws to give them permission. This is amply demonstrated by the number of women assaulted there by men who follow them in.

4) Harassment and assault, whether in the women's restroom or out of it, is already illegal.

5) The number of times this has happened is officially zero, even in places where trans people are explicitly given permission to use their preferred facilities. Since these laws have started passing, a handful of people have been jackasses about hassling the occupants of the women's restroom or locker room. All have been cis men. I haven't heard of a single one who even bothered to dress up for the occasion, let alone tried to actually pretend to be a woman. (Side note: trans women aren't pretending to be women, they are women. Just so we're clear.)

6) Transgender isn't a noun. It's an adjective. The noun you need to attach it to is "people". As in, we are people. In some cases, "woman" or "man" is appropriate, because trans men and women are, respectively, men and women. Yes, real ones. Most of the time you can even drop the "transgender" entirely. Wild, huh?

7) If you don't feel any discomfort or hostility toward trans people -- really honest pinky-swear -- then you need to take a hard look at who your bedfellows are on this issue. Because I can guarantee you that the people leading the charge are not so benevolent, and the harm they're doing to the trans community is neither inadvertent, nor a "necessary cost of safety". It's the goal.