Why Trans bathroom laws are a problem

By Zachary Simonson on May 31, 2016

Lately there has been a lot of talk about Trans bathroom laws. A lot of people believe that which bathroom a person can use should be deiced based on what their birth certificate says, or what type of genitals they have. Recently President Obama has come out and said that these bills are problematic, and I have to agree. There are a lot of problems with these laws and they shouldn’t be passed.

First, one of the main arguments for these laws is to protect our children. I can understand this argument, and there is nothing wrong with trying to protect your children, but these laws don’t do that. Sex offenders are still allowed to share a bathroom with anyone they want, as long as their gender matches the bathroom. Your son and daughters already do share bathrooms with convicted rapists, and these laws wont change that. Is it remotely possible for someone to take advantage of a system that lets Trans people use the bathroom they want? Yes, its possible, but how likely is it that this will actually happen? I know this isn’t the best argument, but there are easier ways for predators to strike, and its unlikely anyone will attack you in a public bathroom.

Second, these laws do put people in danger. These laws will put Trans people in danger. A recent trend is Trans men and women taking bathroom selfies in the bathrooms they will be forced into because of these laws. The point of these pictures is to show that these laws will be forcing men into the women bathroom and women into the men bathroom, and this puts them in more danger than these laws prevent. No one is okay with being forcefully outed, and that’s what this law will do to a lot of Trans people. And in some situations this will put them in danger. Not every part of the country is accepting of Trans people, and while not everyone of those people are dangerous, Trans people are frequently the victims of violence based on Gender identity. These kind of attacks will become more prevent when these laws force people into the wrong bathroom in a public place.

Third, is sexual assault going to become common in public bathrooms if these laws don’t get passed? Probably not. Its a public location, anyone can walk in at any time. As someone who worries over things that will probably never happen to me, I have put some thought into this possibility. These are bathrooms in public places. And that is sager than a lot of places a rapist could attack you. And most cases of sexual assault are done by someone the victim knows. Its not impossible, nothing is. The odds of being stuck by lightning is 1/190,000, but its not impossible. We don’t live in fear of unlikely possibilities.

Fourth, if people are so certain that rapes will occur if these laws aren’t passed, doesn’t that mean we aren’t handling rape correctly? Very few rapes are actually reported, a lot of rapists get await in the end, male rape victims rarely ever report their assault, most of the time those who do report their rapist are harassed because people don’t believe them or just assume their lying. These are all issues that were around before these laws came out, and these issues are still around. Maybe we should put more effort into fixing these issues instead. There are a lot of myths and misinformation about sexual assault, and dealing with that is a better option than passing bathroom laws. If we let these laws pass its the same as saying that rape is something we all accept as an inevitability and something we all expect in our lives. Its the same as giving up, instead of fixing the problem.

 

Lastly, The issue here isn’t even Trans people. If the real problem is protecting our children from rapists, why do we need laws that target and hurt Trans people? We all want our families and loved ones to be safe, but these kinds of laws wont do that. These laws out trans people, have gotten cis (non-trans) women kicked out of bathrooms, and have increased the rates of trans gender suicides in the states these laws have been passed in.  If we want to protect our kids we should teach them how to stay safe, how to defend themselves, and what to look out for around strangers. This  won’t completely protect them, but it will do what these laws say they will, it will lower their chances of being assaulted, and it wont have the negative consequences these laws have. Trans bathroom laws aren’t the solution, they’re just  another problem.

 

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format