I like the United States. I’ve enjoyed living here and I can’t see myself leaving. Yet, despite the fact I’ve been here over 15 years, it can sometimes still feel like a very foreign place. The so called culture wars rage here with an intensity and strangeness that doesn’t seem to exist in Western Europe. There are some toxic topics here – abortion, guns, goverment regulation, religion in public life – that are unique to the history of the place. You can live here for years and not understand why they create such passionate debate.
Occasionally these culture wars wage a battle by strange proxies. The latest example of this is the public bathroom. Having failed to stop gay people have sex and get married, some conservatives have decided to draw the line at transgender people using the bathroom. Fighting for such a ridiculous cause is perhaps indicative of the desperation of their position, but that doesn’t stop it being any less harmful to transgender people.
Vox has a good article on the history of this and how it’s being used as way to generally attack LGBT rights. John Oliver also did his usual excellent job of demolishing some of the bullshit arguments involved here. Although perhaps my favorite piece of political activism comes from Shakina Nayfack who is touring North Carolina (current epicenter of the battle) and peeing in a lot of urinals.
Of course other countries have their issues with bathrooms as well. For example, based on this image, it looks like Japan has an issue with men getting trapped in ladies toilets. I just hope she spots him before it’s too late. Otherwise the poor chap might get awfully wet.
This is from the Team Rinryu site.
These “bathroom wars” are absurd and offensive, especially (like anti-abortion legislation efforts) they come under the guise of “protecting women.”
First of all, I’ve been using public restrooms all my life, and the worst thing I ever encountered was a turd someone didn’t flush.
Also, I’m willing to bet that almost all women have been in a womens’ restroom with a trans woman more than once, and didn’t even know it.
It’s ALSO offensive because trans are among the most disenfranchised and vulnerable people in our society and I hate to see them being picked on. And the idea that trans people are trans so that they can “sneak in” and “infiltrate” womens’ restrooms and women’s spaces, like, I dunno, women-only colleges or lesbian collectives, is completely paranoid and ridiculous.
Every psychiatrist who does the year(s)-long evaluation of trans people before they are approved for sexual reassignment hormones and surgery will tell you that trans are among the most passive, nonviolent, even, dare I say, timid (and why wouldn’t they be, surrounded by constant hostility?) demographics in society. These personality traits are facts, documented in peer-reviewed psych literature for decades. Trans are not Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.
That’s the end of my rant.
Always welcome one of your rants Miss Margo. Completely agree. As is so often the way with certain groups of politicians, they love to create fear in one group in order to bully another. I think the Vox article does a good job in laying out how these arguments are really just a cover for attacking LGBT people in general. Although nobody should be surprised by that. A lot of laws and policies are really thinly disguised ways of attacking niche groups without drawing too much attention.
Thanks for stopping by!
-paltego
Lovely 🙂
Glad you liked it!
-paltego