BY GWEN SMITH
Once again, the issue of transgender people in bathrooms has reared its ugly head.
In Houston, Texas, Proposition 1 seeks a veto referendum on the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, aka HERO. The ordinance would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, just as HERO already had. It would also make explicit coverage for sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, familial status, marital status, military status, religion, disability, genetic information and pregnancy, on par with federal law.
In the fight against HERO, as well as Proposition 1, the issue of public access for transgender people has taken center stage, with graphics speaking out about men in women's bathrooms, and critics seeking to call the ordinance the "Sexual Predator Protection Act."
Now let me stop for one moment here. As you can probably already guess, neither HERO nor Proposition 1 offered any protection for sexual predators. It did not change any laws regarding sexual predators, nor offer them any protected class.
What it does allow for is transgender people to use facilities appropriate to their gender identity or expression.
This has not stopped the group "Campaign For Houston" from publishing statements like this on their website. "Campaign for Houston is made up of parents and family members who do not want their daughters, sisters or mothers forced to share restrooms in public facilities with gender-confused men, who — under this ordinance — can call themselves 'women' on a whim and use women's restrooms whenever they wish. This 'bathroom ordinance' therefore is an attempt to re-structure society to fit a societal vision we simply do not share or can support."
I want to draw attention to some slanted language in the above. This notion of "on a whim," as it if were so easy, is specious. So is the noting that those who would opt to do so are "gender confused." It is not us, apparently, who are so confused. At least, in that statement, they did not try to call transgender people sexual predators.
Meanwhile, this same issue is coming up in Wisconsin, with two Republican lawmakers attempting to bar transgender students from school locker rooms and bathrooms.
Rep. Jesse Kremer and Sen. Steve Nass are pushing a bill to declare such facilities to be marked for single genders, and, as Kremer put it, "students born biologically male must not be allowed to enter facilities designated for biological females and vice versa."
It goes further than just this, of course, allowing parents to file a written complaint if they feel their child's privacy is being violated due to a transgender student's use of facilities, and even to sue for damages.
Oh, I should note here that the passage of this bill would be in violation of Federal Title IX protections — not that the issue of federal law seems to bother anyone in the wake of Kim Davis.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties is changing its policies, requiring transgender patrons to use only private locker rooms and single stall restrooms. They estimate having a "fairly low" number of transgender members, and have also had no issues with inappropriate exposure in the wake of a more inclusive policy towards transgender patrons that was put in action last April. They have instituted the new policy after over 1,000 comments were received about the change.
I've talked about bathroom issues. In fact, I've talked about bathroom issues more than any other specific topic in the last year or two. It is, seemingly, the battleground over transgender rights.
The argument is always the same, so much so that it is its own meme: allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice will allow sexual predators the freedom to assault your children and wives. It is an argument reeking of bovine waste product.
In other states that have passed similar transgender protections like that of the HERO ordinance, there has been no increase in sexual assaults as a result. Allowing transgender people to relieve themselves in appropriate facilities has not made sexual assaults any less illegal nor any easier to commit. It just doesn't connect.
We live in a time where, in spite of high profile transgender stories in the media, we still see transgender people being murdered at an alarming rate. We still face staggering amounts of discrimination and bias.
We're also seeing an increase in transgender suicide, which is already at an epidemic level. No number of Caitlyn Jenner Vanity Fair covers seems to be able to stop this.
We need to know that we are safe and protected in our communities — and the opposition to basic rights like an appropriate bathroom facility tells us that we are neither safe nor protected. When you want to know who would be targeted in a bathroom, it is not the fictional wives and daughters of those conservatives aiming for these bills — it is us, the transgender people of this country who just want to be able to use a restroom or changing facility without fear.
I don't like to spend so much time talking about bathrooms. I'd rather be writing about, oh, Spirit Day or something — nearly anything — else. Yet this fight is not ending, so it's my duty to keep banging this drum.
It's time that our allies and we in the LGBT community speak out. This is a fight that overshadows marriage rights and military service. This is a basic human need, denied to a vulnerable community.
Take action, now.
