The first criminal bathroom ban with a jail sentence has just taken effect overnight in Florida. Florida is now dangerous for transgender people to travel through, with arrests likely in coming days.
One one hand, I thing people should be allowed to use whatever facilities best fit their “plumbing”, so a pre-op trans person should use the bathroom matching their cis gender.
On the other, trans people should not be subject to any harassment their external appearance might cause in the bathroom they choose.
On yet another… what’s wrong with “unisex” bathrooms? Just have a single bathroom, everyone uses it… problem solved? Removing “whites vs. colored” bathrooms worked just fine, why shouldn’t removing “guys vs. gals” work too?
I used to think gendered bathrooms were silly, but my Sex & Gender & American Imperialism professor mentioned that getting separate bathrooms was an early feminist issue, which might explain (a small percent of) the TERF backlash, they see it as “men invading women’s spaces” which they fought for. There’s also something to be said for rape culture, our current cultural climate might make it actively dangerous for women, cis or trans, to be in compromised positions in spaces men are sanctioned to appear in. Not that men are dangerous, but that dangerous men exist and are shielded by rape culture.
I’m split on this.
One one hand, I thing people should be allowed to use whatever facilities best fit their “plumbing”, so a pre-op trans person should use the bathroom matching their cis gender.
On the other, trans people should not be subject to any harassment their external appearance might cause in the bathroom they choose.
On yet another… what’s wrong with “unisex” bathrooms? Just have a single bathroom, everyone uses it… problem solved? Removing “whites vs. colored” bathrooms worked just fine, why shouldn’t removing “guys vs. gals” work too?
I used to think gendered bathrooms were silly, but my Sex & Gender & American Imperialism professor mentioned that getting separate bathrooms was an early feminist issue, which might explain (a small percent of) the TERF backlash, they see it as “men invading women’s spaces” which they fought for. There’s also something to be said for rape culture, our current cultural climate might make it actively dangerous for women, cis or trans, to be in compromised positions in spaces men are sanctioned to appear in. Not that men are dangerous, but that dangerous men exist and are shielded by rape culture.