Everyone Has It Wrong on Transgenders in Bathrooms

“I pee with LGBT.”

That’s the slogan adopted by a campaign against Texas Senate Bill 6, a relatively simple piece of legislation which would accomplish three straightforward objectives:

1. Mandate that public schools and charters designate multi-occupancy bathrooms or changing facilities for members of each biological gender,
2. Prohibit political subdivisions, such as cities and counties, from passing ordinances dictating the designation of such facilities in private venues, and
3.  Protect businesses biding for government work from discrimination on account of their particular bathroom designation policy

Pretty unassuming and even-handed stuff. Yet, from the response by critics, you might think Texas was plotting the televised execution of cross-dressers.

The Texas ACLU put out a ridiculous ad calling upon supporters of the LGBT community to protest the bill by “taking a seat [to] take a stand,” which seems to mean making use of the opposite gender’s bathroom facilities as a form of protest. As protest tactics go, this seems particularly ludicrous. Who is your audience in the bathroom? Plus, if the point is to affirm the absurd belief that men can be women by thinking it so, how does marching into the women’s restroom as a non-transgender demonstrate solidarity? I thought the point was that women are made so by their feelings. If so, shouldn’t men who feel like men stay out of the women’s room? It’s all very confusing.

Of course, reason has never had a seat at the transgender table. Many of the same people who label conservatives “deniers” for questioning the veracity of anthropogenic global warming will openly reject basic biology as applied to gender identity. We can argue whether a few degrees difference in global temperature is best attributed to carbon emissions or solar activity, but shouldn’t need to argue whether a penis makes you a man. If the latter claim seems controversial to the Left, allow me to suggest that they’re the deniers.

That said, the Right doesn’t get off scot-free on this issue. The fear and paranoia surrounding transgenders in restrooms ignores a couple crucial probabilities. First, though it may come as some surprise, chances are good that you’ve peed next to a transgender person already. They aren’t waiting in the wings with their knees crossed, hoping for changes in corporate policy or state statute before whizzing where they please. They’re in your bathroom right now. You don’t notice, because you damn well shouldn’t. The business attended to in restrooms rarely involves interaction with others, and few people enter with the intention to make a statement.

Second, if a sexual predator wants to prey upon your daughter in a public restroom, they likewise aren’t waiting for changes in policy to enable them. A 2015 Campaign for Houston ad, which urged voters to reject an ordinance which would have mandated accommodation of transgenders in the restroom of their choice, ends with a depiction of a grown man entering a stall with a young girl trapped inside. Few seem to ask themselves what would logically happen next in that scenario, with or without laws governing bathroom designation. Either way, the girl is trapped in the stall with a man. Unless we’re going to staff restrooms with security guards or police officers, the practical security of anyone using a restroom remains the same regardless of policy.

The Texas bill recognizes the sovereignty of property owners to determine for themselves which policies shall govern their restrooms. For that, the bill’s authors should be applauded. The prohibition on municipal interference with that right proves appropriate. We don’t need laws governing restroom use in private venues. Public buildings, on the other hand, must be governed by law, which makes this bill’s mandates regarding schools appropriate.

Naturally, the Left rejects that. For them, being told to use the bathroom which corresponds to your biological gender is a form of violence. Their premise seems to be that a transgender person’s feelings are superior to those of a non-transgender person’s, and must therefore dominate in all circumstances. It’s a kind of deviant totalitarianism where authority is determined by minority status rather than property right.

The Left’s narrative on so-called “transgender rights” counters their expressed so-called “pride.” If you’re proud of your identity, why do you need me to validate it? Precisely no one is insisting that transgender individuals reject their worldview, sense of identity, or personal values. So why are they insisting that the rest of us reject ours? Get over yourselves.

This post is based on a discussion broadcast on Closing Argument with Walter Hudson, heard weeknights 9-11p CST on Twin Cities News Talk AM 1130 / 103.5 FM, streamed at twincitiesnewstalk.com and on the iHeartRadio app.