Didn’t realize there were so many transphobic folks on here wow why am I surprised 
@JasmineArmani It’s very sad 
I hope that none of these transphobic people here ever have trans children…
Not so many, JasmineArmani. Just a few. Far fewer than most places, really.
@Snowybuny You never know. It’s always the main ones who are transphobic that end up having Transgender children lol. I would be more than happy if my kid ever came out as LBGTQ+ as they are on a lifelong journey to discover who they are, and I will never stop them. It’s very disheartening to me when I hear that the parents of those children not support them because after all, aren’t parents supposed to support their children, allow them to grow and discover the world and who they are for themselves? Or If they come out to their parents, they will be forever known as a disgrace? It’s very sad the amount of closed minded people there are in this world.
“The enlightened bunch do not want us to talk about real problems that everybody is experiencing, like lack of jobs and opportunities for kids, they want us to focus on our bathroom habits. So, we just do what we are told - focus on our bathroom habits. This is the most important agenda in our lives!”
That is true, but if by enlightened bunch you mean those supporting transgender folk, I don’t think so. The reason this became an issue is because conservatives are looking for an issue, any issue, they can use to go around and panic people about. They can’t do it with same sex marriage, since the issue is settled and people have figured out that the world didn’t end, civilization didn’t end and God didn’t wipe out the earth and such. The GOP has been using issues like this to fire up their base and yes, it is to create a smokescreen and get them fired up about non issues like this so they won’t be looking at economic issues…it is why the GOP faces a split at the moment, a candidate is running on just such a platform, that the party leaders have been duping the people with all these issues while selling them out economically, and people are responding to it. The bathroom issue wouldn’t have been one if the NC legislature hadn’t passed their law, and the law is clearly designed to fire up the religious right and other members of the base, with scare tactics (“OMG, transgender women in the restroom, lock up the women and children”), not to mention that the law the legislators passed basically denies localities the right to pass any kind of protections for LGBT people, raise the minimum wage, etc…
@musicprnt Glad I moved out of NC lol. Good riddance!
I’m not quite following your logic. You say you don’t care if you don’t know, and yet you seem to care deeply.
Everywhere in this country - every state and every business - it has been the defacto standard for trans people to use the bathroom they identify with, up until the recent stir over NC and MS trying to change that defacto standard.
Therefore unfortunately I have to point out that it might be time for you to consider leaving the country behind unless you happen to live in NC or MS as in all other states you have been and are currently sharing the bathroom with trans women.
Many times when I go into a public restroom, especially at a large place like a mall or airport, but even at work, there are already other people there. Would you bar the door to anyone else entering and wait until the others present leave so that you can lock the door? How would this be feasible at a busy place like an airport? I’ve walked into an airport restroom with 20 stalls and had to wait on line. Perhaps it would be feasible in a place with only 2-3 stalls, but not in something larger. That said, the campus where I work now has a number of “gender-neutral” single toilet lockable bathrooms, so you would be okay there.
@JasmineArmani wrote
It is inaccurate to characterize people here who disagree w you as _____phobic. I have no more antipathy against trans people than I have against the opposite sex. I don’t think my sons should be in a female public bathroom either.
@Snowybuny wrote
If it takes uncommitted people a long time to decide what they want to be, then I don’t see why the rest of the population need to be imposed upon for “years of self discovery”. To equate the civil rights struggle of transgendered people w that of blacks or of people in wheelchairs is ridiculous. Race and physical disability are PERMANENT conditions. You don’t “come out” as black after “years of self discovery”, nor is there the option to change your mind.
I don’t have any problems w coed usage of facilities so long as the facilities are marked coed. I would be more circumspect there; I would not change my clothes in open view, the way I often do in public airports bathrooms. A bathroom marked single-sex carries with it a certain expectation of privacy vs the opposite sex.
It all comes down to managing people’s expectations…
I guess I don’t get it.
When going to a public bathroom, you go into a stall. You close the stall door. You do your business. You open the door. You wash your hands. You leave.
How would you know that the person in the stall next to you is trans? And in what way is their presence a problem if both you and said person are in their own stalls?
@GMTplus7 I agree with you on the second part. You can’t compare the discrimination of African Americans to that of Transgenders. It’s just not the same.
I don’t get into a stall to change my clothes. You try opening a rollaboard suitcase in an airport restroom stall and try standing shoeless on a nasty wet stall floor. If the multiperson bathroom is marked singlesex, then I have expectations of singlesex privacy.
@GMTplus7 How exactly are you being imposed on? I really don’t understand what you mean by that, sorry. Also @musicprnt and I have both explained why the bathroom bill doesn’t prevent sexual assault and why most trans women who are using the bathroom pass as cis.
So you’re going to inconvenience others because you don’t go into a stall?
And anyway, a trans woman is… a woman. A trans man wouldn’t be in your restroom. What’s the problem?
I don’t see how my changing clothes in the open in a singlesex bathroom inconveniences others. I am always conscious about not blocking anyone’s way.
I don’t have a problem w trans people using the bathroom of their gender identity, so long as they legally commit to being that gender. Another poster stated that people can take YEARS of self discovery before they decide. Until that person has officially committed, i think it appropriate they use the bathroom of their biological sex.
“so long as they legally commit to being that gender” Huh?? You’re going to ask for a legal document before you raise a fuss over someone in the bathroom?
And people who haven’t transitioned aren’t in the habit of using the other sex’s restrooms. If they did, you’d – all of us! – would see a lot more men in the women’s bathrooms and vice versa.
Since that’s uncommon, your whole concern is… out of whack with reality. As someone else upthread said. "It’s not how it works. "
@GMTplus7 what I meant by that was that trans people don’t just decide to be trans one day as some posters were claiming. My brother didn’t know he was a boy for years, he was using the girls bathroom then because he identified as a girl. After reading a lot of information about LGBTQ+ identities online and asking me to try out different pronouns he realized he identified as a boy. Even after that he didn’t come out to my mom for about a year and now he’s changed his name (though not legally). We’ll be taking him to a gender counselor soon to talk about next steps such as hormone therapy, binders, etc.
As for legal commitment please take a look at this link I posted earlier: http://www.lambdalegal.org/know-your-rights/transgender/changing-birth-certificate-sex-designations Though it hasn’t been updated in awhile many states have not changed their regulations so it should be fairly accurate.
Also not directed at anyone in particular, but people should really read at least the last couple pages of this thread before posting. Chances are your arguments have already been responded to.
And if someone came in who looked a heckuva lot like a man, you might feel like your expectations are not being met, eh?
First of all, I think it was dumb of NC to even pass this law-- it’s not like it was a burning issue, nor are there a multitude of trans people. It was pure political pandering. But now that NC stupidly raised the profile of this issue, it only invites jerks in the rest of the country to be jerks. And any law that is impractical to enforce is a useless law-- there’s no potty police that’s going to stand at the door to check to check ID.
I will be clear: I don’t have any problems with trans people living their lives in the gender norm they identify with, including using bathrooms designated for the opposite biological sex. But as @Snowybuny has pointed out, it can take “years of self discovery” for someone to decide on this. It’s not the sincere and committed people that concern me, it’s the “years of self discovery” period that is subject to abuse by non-trans jerks. And, no, it has nothing to do with fear of sexual assault-- both side of this issue are guilty of hyperbole.
A practical solution would be for larger multi-person public restrooms be designated as coed, and smaller multi-person bathrooms be designated single sex (e.g. urinal rooms). This would kill many birds with the same stone, including solving the potty parity problem.
What people don’t seem to get is that if a trans woman is in the woman’s bathroom THERE IS NO MAN IN THE BATHROOM. For all intents and purposes a trans woman is a woman.
And I highly doubt she would want anyone to see her penis.
This would not be at all like being exposed before a man. Unless she is lesbian and I’m sure most of us females here have been in a state of undress in front of unidentifiable lesbians…
And gender equality bathrooms do not suddenly allow perverse men to digitize themselves as women and enter to attack children. They could be doing that now!