The Cons of Transgender People Using the Bathroom

Although discriminating against transgender people creates detrimental psychological and social outcomes, there are important reasons to disallow transgender people from using any bathroom they would like. For one, there are legal and ethical reasons why transgender people should use the bathroom that corresponds with their birth sex. Transgender people are no better than anyone else, and no more deserving of special rights and privileges. If a transgender person is allowed to use any bathroom, then every person would be entitled to the same right. Transgenders should not use the opposite sex bathroom as it would cause chaos and mass invasions of the privacy of ordinary people. For example, men would readily walk into the female washrooms and cause disturbances or even practice predatory behavior. Second, transgender people may be in transition. During the time of transition, the person’s gender will not be immediately apparent, and the person’s gender identity is too malleable to entitle the person to use any bathroom other than the one their birth biology dictated. Finally and most importantly, transgender people create unsafe bathroom environments. Not only can transgender people endanger others; they are also confused and might make the other people in the bathroom uncomfortable by their presence. The majority of people are not transgender, and there is no reason why the majority of people should be uncomfortable to accommodate for the minority. Therefore, transgender people should not be able to use whatever bathroom they prefer.
The first reason why transgender people should not use whatever bathroom they want is legal. If a bathroom is located on private property, the owner of that property has the right to say who can and cannot use the facility. When a bathroom is located on public property, the people using it are all considered equal under the law. The law does not protect transgender people any more than it protects anyone else. In the United States, the Department of Education and the Department of Justice both tried to use their federal powers to override the law. These government organizations invoked Title IX, which prevents gender discrimination in public schools. However, many states cleverly noted that applying Title IX to transgender people constituted “federal overreach that threatened the safety and privacy of non-transgender students,” (Karimi & Grinberg, 2017, p. 1). Christian groups like the Family Research Council may also have a stronger legal case to make versus groups that protect the rights of transgender individuals (Karimi & Grinberg, 2017). Transgender people are subject to the same laws as everyone else, and should not be allowed to use whatever bathroom they want unless everyone else is afforded the same right. Few people would want men to use the women’s restrooms or women to use the men’s restrooms. Therefore, transgender people should not be allowed to use whatever bathroom they want to use.
If transgender people used whatever bathroom they wanted, then it would create a slippery slope leading to gender normative people using any bathroom they wanted. Gender normative people would often claim that they are transgender and would use whatever bathroom they wanted, thus creating unsafe public bathrooms. It makes no difference that, as Grinberg & Stewart (2017) point out, transgender people are frequently assaulted in public washrooms that do not match the person’s gender identity. If transgender people do not want to be assaulted in the bathroom, they need to simply not be transgender. Being transgender is a choice, not a right. Besides, just because 70% of transgender people have been verbally or physically abused when using public washrooms does not mean that they have the right to abuse others with their presence (Grinberg & Stewart, 2017). Transgender people can be considered mentally ill, because the condition entails “dysphoria and depression,” (Schmidt, 2013, p. 158). Given this, transgender people need therapy and not the right to use any bathroom they want. In Doe v. Regional School Unit, the Maine Supreme Court held that “a transgender girl had a right to use the women’s restroom at school because her psychological wellbeing and educational success depended on her transition,” (LAMBDA Legal, 2017). Unfortunately, the law is incorrect. The psychological wellbeing of other people should take precedence over that of transgender people, who are in the minority.
Transgender people may be in transition, their genders too ambiguous to enable or entitle them to use whatever bathroom they want. Although many transgender people appear clearly masculine or feminine, many do not. Very few transgender people have gender reassignment surgeries, also known as gender-affirming surgery, “whether because of cost, personal beliefs, concern about surgical risks or the limitations of available procedures,” (LAMBDA Legal, 2017). Because of this, the person’s gender may be ambiguous. If genitals are the main indication of gender, as many people believe, then only genitalia should determine which bathroom a person uses. Privacy issues aside, if a person has the genitalia of a woman but appears butch, that person should still be required to use a female bathroom. Requiring people to use the bathroom that corresponds to their genital sex makes sense, and is actually the safer choice for everyone. “Creating a separate place for transgender people to go to the bathroom would amount to segregation,” (Teeman, 2017, p. 1). Instead of segregating bathrooms according to new gender rules, the age-old gender binaries should apply to everyone.
Safety is the main reason why all people should use the bathroom that corresponds not with their identity, but with their genitals or at least the gender they were assigned at birth. Transgenders using the opposite sex bathrooms than their identity is not the same thing as having transgenders using the opposite sex bathroom of what they appear. Even if a person has received gender reassignment or gender affirming surgery, that person is not a real man or woman but a freak of nature that has no role to play in society. The discrimination that transgender people experience is linked to suicidal behavior and other “detrimental psychological outcomes,” (Seelman, 2016, p. 1378). Those health and safety issues are negligible compared to the broader public safety and public health concerns. “The rest of society needs protection” not transgender people (Teeman, 2017, p. 1). Granted, “the medical community endorses letting children live their gender identity,” (Grinberg & Stewart, 2017, p. 1). This means that doctors widely believe that individuals should use the bathroom that corresponds with their identity. Using the opposite sex bathroom would mean using the bathroom that does not correspond with the person’s identity, causing major health and safety problems. One solution to the problem is to create more gender neutral bathrooms in both public and private places. Another solution would be to designate a special bathroom for transgender people, effectively segregating the bathrooms into cis-gender and transgender. Regardless, there is no reason why transgender people should be able to use the opposite bathroom.
It is also important that transgender people do not use the opposite sex bathroom because of social norms. Preserving social norms related to gender, bathroom behaviors, and sexuality is important for many people in the society. Gender and gender identity are sometimes framed as complex issues, but they do not need to be. The term opposite suggests that there are two genders, and only two. With gender binaries, only male and female are acceptable categories. Bathrooms have been gender segregated into the binaries of male and female for many generations, to allow both men and women to enjoy their bathroom behaviors in privacy and safety. If gender identity were allowed to become fluid, there would be no such thing as an opposite gender. All persons would have a malleable gender identity that could potentially change each and every day. Teaching children how to use the bathroom that is aligned with their gender is important. Children need the certainty of binaries and opposites in order to prevent them from developing gender identity problems themselves.
Bathrooms have become a political, legal, and ethical battleground. There are a lot of reasons why transgender people should not use the opposite sex bathrooms, including religious ones. As of 2017, more than 200 municipalities have “anti-discrimination laws and ordinances allowing transgender people to use public facilities that correspond to their gender identity,” (Grinberg & Stewart, 2017, p. 1). Transgender people do experience harassment and discrimination, but so too do cis-gender people. All persons deserve the right to peaceful and gender normative bathrooms. A person who has been assigned a gender at birth cannot simply use the bathroom of the opposite sex. Therefore, a person who reassigns his or her own gender cannot use the bathroom of the opposite sex either. Bathrooms are safe and private spaces. Even public bathrooms allow individuals to urinate or defecate in peace. The law prevents discrimination so that no person in any bathroom is uncomfortable or harassed in any way. When citizens are harassed or made uncomfortable by the presence of transgender people in the bathroom, their rights are infringed upon. Likewise, it is unethical to allow or to require transgender people to use the opposite sex bathroom. The opposite sex bathroom is, as the phrase implies, for people of the opposite sex. Transgender people should not use whatever bathroom they prefer, but should use the bathroom that other people say they should use, which is typically linked to their biology at birth. Biological sex is immutable, and gender is as inevitable as having to pee or poop.






References

Grinberg, E. & Stewart, D. (2017). 3 myths that shape the transgender bathroom debate. CNN. March 7, 2017. Retrieved online: http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/07/health/transgender-bathroom-law-facts-myths/index.html
Karimi, F. & Grinberg, E. (2017). Trump’s reversal on transgender bathroom directive. CNN. Feb 23, 2017. Retrieved online: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/23/health/transgender-bathrooms-trump-q-and-a/index.html
LAMBDA Legal (2017). Know your rights. Retrieved online: https://www.lambdalegal.org/know-your-rights/article/trans-restroom-faq
Schmidt, D.A. (2013). Bathroom bias. Michigan Journal of Gender and Law 20(1).
Seelman, K.L. (2016). Transgender adults’ access to college bathrooms and housing and the relationship to suicidality. Journal of Homosexuality 63(10): 1378-1399.
Teeman, T. (2017). The fight against the anti-transgender bathroom bill that could mess with Texas. Daily Beast. Retrieved online: https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-fight-against-the-anti-transgender-bathroom-bill-that-could-mess-with-texas