Re: Public restrooms for transgenders / transvestites
My viewpoint is that a transgender person should use whichever restroom they feel comfortable using. As you pointed out TLK, transgender includes both pre-op and post-op situations. Transitioning from a male to female or vice versa is not something that happens overnight. It’s a process that can take years. A transgender person simply can’t walk into a surgeon’s office and change their anatomy. Its a slow and long process that involves taking hormones for months (if not years) to slowly change outward appearance. The transgender person must start living as the gender they’re going to transition into. The sex reassignment surgery is the very final step in the process. Keep in mind that none of the hormone treatments or the surgery is cheap and insurance doesn’t cover it so people also must be able to pay for it on their own which also often causes delay in the process.
Because of how complex the “change” can be, I will post two links at the end of my post which highlight how ridiculous it is to expect a transgender person to use the restroom that matches the genitals as opposed to what they look like. I don’t know any woman who could be comfortable if someone who looked like the man in the first link walked into the woman’s restroom…even if “he” had a vagina. Would Cruz be comfortable if he saw the bearded man in the first link walk behind his daughter into the restroom? On the flip side, I feel confident in saying that it would cause a scene if the woman in the second link walked inside a men’s restroom even if she still has a penis.
I honestly don’t understand what the issue is. As a woman, I don’t go into a woman’s restroom and walk around naked. I go in, get inside a stall, do my thing and get out. In Houston, we have a lot of places where the restrooms are unisex. I have yet to hear about a child or woman being assaulted by a man in these bathrooms. I have no idea where these safety concerns comes from. I am not aware of any studies (or even individual situations) where a transgender person went into a woman’s restroom and molested a child or sexually assaulted/raped a woman. Cruz and everyone else never attaches any FACTS to these fears.
What’s ironic is that even though there has not been a slew of cases where transgender people are molesting/raping women inside women’s restrooms…TONS of cases out there show evidence that transgender people themselves are victims of violence. Anyone who thinks that a transgender person who looks like the woman in the 2nd link would be 100% safe inside a men’s restroom is delusional.
One tweet that shows a huge problem with North Carolina’s anti-transgender bathroom law - Vox
Transgender woman shares a picture of herself in a North Carolina restroom | WTXF