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The Transgender Bathroom Battle What is the Law

1,362 views · Published 25 December 2018 · 1:00 · Indexed 12 November 2026

Channel: TONY VERA TVNEWS · 2018 · People & Blogs

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Several states and school districts are filing a lawsuit protesting the Obama administration’s directive that transgender students may use the bathroom of their choice (and otherwise be granted equal access). As these cases work their way through federal appeals courts, it seems increasingly likely that the Supreme Court may ultimately decide the debate over transgender bathroom laws.

Prior legal precedent has established that transgender individuals may use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity (Lambda Legal). In support of this, the Obama administration recently issued a directive clarifying that transgender students be granted access to gender-appropriate facilities—that is, to facilities that match their gender identity, rather than the sex they were assigned at birth. Nevertheless, North Carolina’s House Bill 2 (HB 2), the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, mandates that individuals use bathrooms and locker rooms concordant with the sex listed on their birth certificate. Several additional states and school districts are challenging the Obama administration’s guidelines ensuring equal access. Not surprisingly, this has sparked a contentious debate.

In my next post I will investigate why this issue has become so contentious—that is, why there is such strong opposition to equal access for transgender women and men and how this is motivated by commonly-held societal beliefs about sex and gender. In this post I address the surface concerns over safety and practicality.

What about safety?

Transgender students are safest when schools treat transgender and cisgender (non-transgender) students alike, allowing both to use the locker rooms and restrooms that correspond to their gender identity (Lambda Legal). What is more, allowing or preventing transgender individuals from entering the bathroom of their choice has no impact on the safety of cisgender women and girls (or cisgender men or boys, for that matter). Being transgender does not make someone an abuser. Many transgender individuals “passing” as cisgender are already using their preferred bathrooms without co-users being any the wiser. In the states which already protect transgender individual’s equality, there have been zero reports of transgender individuals assaulting or harassing other occupations in bathrooms (Frank 2016). Like cisgender bathroom users, transgender users are really just there to use the facilities.

Another common concern is that laws permitting people to enter the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity will allow cisgender men to claim a transgender identity in order to enter a women’s bathroom and rape, ogle, or harass women. But if a cisgender man is determined to molest women, it seems unlikely that he would be deterred by laws forbidding biological males to enter women’s bathrooms. Would such a man be unwilling to commit a lesser crime by entering the bathroom when he is intending a more serious crime once inside? It seems very unlikely.

Broad benefits

Another advantage to letting individuals select the bathroom of their choice is that gender non-conforming cisgender women and men would face less discomfort. Currently, anyone (including cisgender men and women) whose gender presentation deviates from narrowly-defined conventions faces difficulties in public restrooms where their right to access may be challenged (Lucal 1999). For example, a cisgender woman who is sometimes mistaken as male may experience confrontations over her right to use a women’s restroom. Recognizing individuals’ right to select the restroom appropriate for themselves equalizes access for anyone outside the conventional gender binary, transgender or cisgender.

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