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Politics and Activism

No, It's Not Just About The Bathrooms

Trans people and deviance.

Tiffany Berruti
Feb 28, 2017
Hunter College
27
No, It's Not Just About The Bathrooms
Wikimedia

Why is everyone so mad about bathrooms? Everyone knows it's just a "boutique issue" to distract us from the real issues (like the white working class). So what if trans people aren't able to go to the bathroom?

Unlike what cis leftists would have you believe, bathroom laws are actually quite critical to talk about in this political moment. Last week, Donald Trump (unsurprisingly) made the decision to rescind the Obama-era executive order that allowed trans students to use facilities that matched their gender identity. This has made it all the more critical to have this conversation now.

First off, it's more than just embarrassment that's at stake. Forcing trans people into bathrooms that do not correspond to their identity actively puts trans people in danger. This risk is compounded for trans students. The most recent study of trans people living in the US found that about a quarter of trans students had been physically assaulted in school due to their transness.

But the problem is even deeper than that. Transness — and queerness more broadly — has been defined as deviant and dangerous since the initial colonization of this continent. This is especially true when transness is presented by people of color.

This ideology persists in our culture, the legal system and in mainstream politics. The hysteria over trans people in bathrooms continues this long tradition by painting trans people as deviants who only want to sexually assault women. But that oppressive narrative has consequences. We don't care about trans life because society teaches us that trans bodies are deviant and wrong.

In fact, I would argue that this is less a question of bathrooms and more a question of public accommodation. Restricting trans bathroom usage is plainly about excluding trans people from public space because of our apparent deviance.

So the question isn't whether trans people should be able to use the bathroom. Rather it is the question of whether trans people deserve to exist in public space.

Unfortunately, considering cis people's apathy, the answer will probably be no.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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