The Cons of Transgender People Using the Bathroom Essay

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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).

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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….....

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