Transgender bathroom options shouldn’t be “festival seating”
In current American society, there are still misunderstandings and a lack of open-mindedness in terms of standards for gender roles and acceptance of sexuality in a diverse world of people.
Many contemporary approaches to this problem, including the Maine Human Rights commission’s proposal to allow transgender students access to the bathroom of their choice, only seem to offer a solution to societal prejudice.
The proposal, which applies to children in preschool all the way up to college level, is currently not being pushed by the commission as it had been last month, and this is for the better.
Most importantly, the Maine Human Rights commission fails to take into consideration the repercussions for the part of their proposal that states that students who wish to use different bathrooms would not need documentation to prove they are transgender people. If this proposal were to hypothetically pass as law, any male or female could enter the opposite gender’s bathroom any time and for any reason.
With this reasoning, the proposal does not acknowledge the probable occurrence of a student with malicious intent entering a bathroom or locker room that does not correlate to his/her anatomy. While this may not be as immediate a concern for the preschool and elementary levels, it is a serious issue for middle schools and up.
President of National School Safety and Security Services Ken Trump voiced his own opinion about the proposal. “The reality is, every day we’re seeing more and more cases of exploitation of children and others, and this would be creating an environment where the risk is increased for that exploitation,” he said in an interview with Fox News.
Using the “right bathroom” is currently something closely enforced by societal norms, and keeping male and female bathrooms separate should be continued. For example, not only would I feel uncomfortable sharing a bathroom with people with male anatomy, I would feel unsafe.
In general, the whole male population is not as understanding of, or sympathetic towards, the female anatomy, and vice versa, as would be required of such a merging of the sexes.
Taken as a whole, this proposal would only waste money and court time that could be used for proper solutions. For example, lawmakers and commissions such as the Maine Human Rights commission could work for legislation that would require schools to provide bathrooms and locker rooms for transgender students of both gender identifications.
American society itself does not yet contain such understanding and maturity to provide more than separate bathrooms for transgender people at this time. However, the government is very capable of achieving legislation to provide transgender bathrooms, and, in order to give transgender people the security of safe and comfortable facilities, it should.