By Gwendolyn Ann Smith
I had once erroneously thought that 2014 or 2015 was going to be the year of "pee politics," with clashes over trans bathroom rights taking up a fair amount of the time spent in fighting for transgender rights. Little did I know what 2016 had in store.
The biggest issue remains House Bill 2 in North Carolina, which is a batter that continues on. Gov. Pat McCrory remains defiant, even after the United States Department of Justice has informed him that the law violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
While McCrory likes to point to "liberal Democrats" somehow forcing his hand on HB2 — even after a report from the Charlotte News & Observer made it clear that both business leaders and other lawmakers tried to steer McCrory away from HB2 — it is the stroke of his pen that moved the trans rights movement to another level.
He is right, of course. None of this happened in a vacuum, and fights over transgender access to public accommodations have been ongoing for some time now. Anti-trans bathroom laws have especially taken off in the wake of Obergefell v. Hodges.
McCrory likes to claim that it was Charlotte, North Carolina's expansion of protections based on gender identity and sexual orientation that somehow forced him into action, citing "major public safety issues" in an email on Feb. 21.
"This shift in policy could also create major public safety issues by putting citizens in possible danger from deviant actions by individuals taking improper advantage of a bad policy," said McCrory.
Once again, McCrory was right in his concern — but, again, not quite in the way he may have been suggesting.
In the wake of the passage of HB2, many musicians have cancelled performances in North Carolina, and many businesses have shifted jobs and money out of the state. A handful of businesses have gone on record to say that all their bathrooms are trans friendly, most notably Target.
The Target policy has led to two important happenings. First, the American Family Association started an online petition, allowing people to sign onto a boycott of Target over the policy. The petition now has over 1.2 million signatures. It is also an unsecure online form that allows anyone to sign, multiple times, meaning that their claim is suspicious as best.
Second, it has led to a slew of reported cases of non-transgender people causing disruptions in bathrooms to either protest the policy, or to "police" restrooms for their possible use by transgender people.
Ellie DeLano on singlemomtism.com speaks of being spied on in the restroom by another woman, who stated in her defense, "Target lets men and homosexuals use just any bathroom now. I was making sure you were a woman."
Michael L. Merichko was charged with disorderly conduct after protesting the policy in a Bradley, Illinois Target location. On a video on his Facebook page, Merichko said, "I don't want some wicked pervert in the same bathroom as my wife or my daughter." This was his second run-in with police at this Target over the policy.
In Dallas, Texas, a man who followed her into the women's room challenged Jessica Rush. He claimed that Rush, who is not transgender, was "dressed like a man" and was using the wrong facilities.
Joey Salads, a "YouTube Star," donned a bad wig and floral dress and attempted to get responses to following women into restrooms and claiming to be "a transgender." Or so it seemed: Zinnia Jones debunked his video on her Gender Analysis YouTube channel.
Oh, and we're back to the American Family Association, too. Sandy Rios, who serves as the director of government affairs for the AFA, addressed the bathroom issue on the Brietbart New Daily radio show.
"I think there's no question when you say that there are no barriers in the bathroom. The net effect will be that people will not be stopped," said Rios. "We've already had people testing this, going into Targets and men trying to go into bathrooms. There is absolutely no barrier."
Now, perhaps they simply wanted more signatures on their online petition, but what Rios just admitted was that they were sending men — not transgender people — into women's rooms at target, presumably to frighten and harass women in these facilities.
To date, there have been no proven instances of people using transgender bathroom rights in the way McCrory or the AFA claim. Instead, their actions are causing vastly more issues than actually exist when transgender people are allowed to use their proper facilities.
How have we gotten here? In an attempt to score political points in an election year, an extremely toxic environment towards transgender people has been created — as if the record levels of anti-transgender violence and murder was not already plenty toxic to us. For nearly 20 years I've spoken out against anti-transgender violence, but never before have we been fighting this hard for our humanity.
One final story, and this one did not happen in a bathroom: In Montreal, Quebec, Canada, just one hour north of the New York border, a man entered the Metropolitan Center of Surgery. He had an axe, a machete and a can of gasoline. He then set fire to an operating room. The clinic is where Dr. Pierre Brassard performs gender reassignment surgeries.
It feels like we're rapidly approaching a flashpoint. One of these confrontations will turn violent, or we'll see more "anti-abortion style" attacks on our caregivers. All thanks to lawmakers like Pat McCrory and groups like the AFA, who felt they could score some political points.
