VulcanGirl
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2011
Honestly, I'm not all that well versed on the transgender thing as it isn't intersecting with my life yet but....
That's okay. The internet can be a good place to learn about new subjects. There are some great educational resources out there.
Though, I would mention that it may actually be intersecting with your life without you realizing it. There's generally no way to know if somebody is trans without them telling you. I can pretty well promise that you have indeed met a trans person at some point in your life.
When transgenders are permitted into the bathroom of the gender with which they identify, what's to stop some pervy guy/gal from just saying they identify with a certain gender just to go into the bathroom and "be pervy" (whatever perverts might do in the bathroom to be perverts)?
Honestly, nothing. But, there currently isn't anything to prevent that. Somebody who really wants to try to spy on others in restrooms could do so regardless of gender, sex, gender presentation, or anything else regardless of the law. That person would no doubt stand out trying to spy upon people and be called out or get in trouble for doing so. Generally, it would be obvious if somebody was doing something that they oughtn't be in a restroom. Neither that person's gender or genitals really have anything to do with that.
Ultimately, none of the concerns you talk about have anything to do with the issue at all. There are zero reported cases of anybody pretending to be transgender and harassing, assaulting, or in any other way negatively affecting anybody else in the restroom. This is not and never has been an issue.
What is an issue is that 70% of trans people have been harassed or assaulted when attempting to use the restroom. The realities of the difficulties that trans people regularly face around something so simple as being able to use restrooms in public locations cannot easily be summed up, but are very real and affect folks around the world.
Laws of the sort that you are concerned about, that allow folks to use the restroom that correlates with their gender, rather than their genitals, are in place in order to attempt to help protect trans folks from harassment and physical danger of this kind.
Though, they are still unable to combat the public mentalities that can threaten trans people regardless of what laws are in place intended to protect people from such issues. I live in Colorado, a state with such laws in place, yet I still have countless friends who are regularly questioned and verbally harassed in restrooms and a few that have experienced being physically dragged out of them and otherwise assaulted.
States, such as North Carolina, that have passed laws requiring trans folks to use the restrooms that correlate with their genitals, rather than their gender, do not protect anybody. But, they do cause serious harm to trans people. They give trans folks the fun choice between the possibility of physical assault (and let's remember that North Carolina is an open carry state) and using the restroom (because that's always super optional, right?) and effectively justify and make legal the discrimination that trans people experience when they try to use the restroom.
So, to go back to your initial concerns, there is no history of anybody using anti-discrimination laws in order to do anything untoward in a restroom. And, personally, I have no doubt that anybody attempting to do anything inappropriate in a public restroom would be quickly called out for it regardless of the surrounding circumstances.
And, I would also go further and speak out against the anti-trans rhetoric that these conversations too often further. Laws such as the current ones in North Carolina actively hurt trans folks, but let's remember that these attitudes exist even in places without those horrible laws and that combating them must be an ongoing effort if our true goal is to protect folks.