The colossal hissy fit being pitched in Houston has to do with HERO, or the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance. The point that is causing some people to defecate cinderblocks is a provision that basically allows people to use restrooms based on their gender self-identity, not the one arbitrarily issued at birth.[1]
Now, one would think this would not be a problem. People typically do not walk about unclothed in public restrooms, we tend to do our business behind closed doors or shielded by stalls.
Unless someone was acting out in a threatening or offensive matter, most people would just mind their own business when tending to their business, if you know what mean and I think you do.
However, there are people who cannot live and let live, poop and let poop with others.
The main challenge to HERO has been the perceived threat than transgender people[2] pose to innocent public convenience users, in particular the dread fear that a pre-op transgender female would suddenly be overcome by heterosexual lust and use their still attached penis to commit rape on a physiological female.
Heterosexual, please…
First off, let’s not make light of the issue of rape: While certainly opportunistic rapes occur where the victim does not know the rapist, they are not likely to occur in well trafficked areas such as public restrooms.
This is certainly not to say restroom assaults never ever occur, but when they do they are committed by rapists who are just too psychopathic to recognize the danger they are putting themselves in, or else are excited by that added level of danger.
And while I have never heard of a heterosexual disguising themselves as a member of the opposite sex in order to get close enough to a victim to physically assault them, that’s not to say it has never happened.
But look at those parameters: It’s not the genuine transgender person who is feared of committing such a crime, but a heterosexual in disguise.
True transgender persons are no more / no less likely to be good or bad citizens than any one else, no more / no less likely to be criminals.[3]
If there is no pattern of same-sex rape in public restrooms among heterosexuals, why should one fear rape by a transgender person?[4]
A rapist determine to carry out a rape will do so, and if their modus operandi consists of donning a disguise in order to get close enough to their victim, they will don a disguise: Their gender / orientation has nothing to do with it, and they will ignore any and all laws to commit their crime.
They will not stop just because they're afraid of breaking a public ordinance against people of one physical sex wearing the clothes of the opposite physical sex in a public restroom.
No, this hysterical reaction is based on no real public threat, it’s based entirely on the ick-factor in many Christians.
The exact same kind of ick-factor that repulsed white Christians when African-Americans wanted to use the same restroom.
Look, I understand being raised with one set of preconceptions and then later in life realizing those preconceptions were woefully ill-informed, and yet still not be able to completely shake the emotions and values associated with the now disproved preconceptions.
Nobody’s perfect, and it’s not unreasonable for a person who has been raised to believe “men are men / women are women” to be somewhat ill at ease in certain situations when encountering a transgender person.
But being ill at ease is not an excuse to torment or deny civil rights or common decency and courtesy to a person.[5]
I will give the benefit of a doubt to many of the people who are opposed to HERO and grant that they truly believe they are acting in the best interests of society as a whole instead of their own personal prejudices.[6]
But if they claim to be Christian, they better learn to give up their cherished ick-factor and start treating other people the way they want to be treated.
And if they don’t want other folks deciding for them which bathroom they can use…
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[1] I choose my terms carefully. Typically all of us are assigned a gender identity on our birth certificates based on what appears to be our physiological sex. Most of the time the hospital / nurses / midwives / taxi cab drivers guess correctly, but has been pointed out elsewhere, that ain’t necessarily so. Even if only a small percentage of the human race has an issue with their assigned birth gender it is nonetheless an issue with millions of people, and all of them deserve courtesy and compassion in their attempts to come to terms with their physical form.
[2] I use the term transgender as shorthand to cover a wide range of issues and concerns for a large number of people, not all of whom have similar, much less overlapping objectives and goals. Insofar as the Golden Rule would seem to indicate we should not intrude on the private lives of others unless invited to do so, any commentary on a transgender person’s personal issues is unwarranted.
[3] Though typically transgender persons do tend to be singled out for persecution and bullying by heterosexuals.
[4] Indeed, when such assaults occur it is typically nothing to do with sex but everything to do with dominance; typically a gang will humiliate a victim of the same sex in order to demonstrate their control and authority.
[5] Not even on Facebook.
[6] But not to their leaders, who are lying sacs of human excrement.