It has been a while, but it’s time to bust out my angry
typing fingers because I just can’t understand these anti LGBT bathroom laws
that are popping up in the south. Cristy
and I were driving home from Florida a couple of weeks ago and stopped in
Tennessee to spend the night. The next
morning the women’s bathroom in the lobby was being cleaned (hopefully
scrubbing it of that hideous UT orange) so the nice lady in the lobby told me I
could just "use the Men’s." And you know I
thought to myself, “Can I be arrested for that in Tennessee?”
Transgender
people have been using the bathroom of their identified gender for
decades. So how many stories have you heard
like “Americans shocked by humans in bathroom appearing to be their same gender later
emerging from stalls with fangs, claws and malicious intents!!” If you are like me you haven’t heard any such
stories. These fears are created by
lawmakers intending to hurt the trans community or rally angry supporters.
Nothing is stopping a predator from sneaking into a bathroom at any time. But since there are also other people in
bathrooms my guess is predators avoid bathrooms as potential attack
points. Hey you men who are purporting
to “protect your women and children” with these concerns: we seem to be protecting ourselves in the potty just
fine. We aren’t being raped or peeped in
our bathrooms, and if we are being peeped it is probably by straight men
through holes from the men’s room.
Cristy
is mistaken for a man occasionally in the women’s restroom so as a couple we have taken
measures to minimize her embarrassment.
We go in together, we talk while we walk in so women can hear her voice
and after peeing she bolts out using hand sanitizer to avoid washing her hands
next to a lady who could give her a dirty look.
And no, she can’t just ‘dress like a girl’ to make it easier on
herself. That would be like asking
someone to wear an uncomfortable Halloween costume every day of their
life. This is already hard enough. Imagine a world in which bathroom vigilantes
police the stalls and try to sniff out offenders! Imagine George Zimmerman types who sit in
bathrooms waiting for people who they suspect to be trans and what…asking to
see their genitals? It will be all "Mam can I see your vagina" or “why
are you sitting down if you only have to pee, SIR??” North Carolina’s new sign on men’s bathrooms
would be “If you are sitting, then you better be shitting!” I don’t care what in the world people are
doing in the bathroom stalls next to me because it is none of my damn
business.
In regards
to the “religious freedom” bills that protect an individual’s right to
discriminate due to “strongly held religious beliefs,” I am really not that
concerned. The court of public opinion
will address the majority of those businesses.
I would rather know up front that a bakery doesn’t want my money just because
I am gay. You can take that ugly cake you
don’t want me to have and shove it. I
would rather you tell me “no” than spit in my dessert. But just wait until someone claims that they
won’t bake a Christian wedding cake because the Flying Spaghetti Monster
demands it be so. I guarantee there will
be outrage across the land! My biggest
concern is that my rights as a citizen as determined by the Supreme Court are
not denied due to these “freedoms” that homophobes like to hide behind. I will not tolerate my future marriage being
compromised by Kim Davis or any of her friends.
So go ahead and try
to pass your laws helping people fear the LGBT community, and see how your
state fairs without the NBA, Disney, Yelp, the NFL, Pepsi, GE, concerts,
commerce, tourism, etc. In the mean time consider why you care who uses the bathroom near you and instead just play on your phone in the stall like everyone else.
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