No Perverts Allowed!
Here's my simple proposal for the Great Bathroom Gender Debate of 2016: just make one sign: "no perverts allowed in the restroom." [update on 5/23/16 - apparently one city has done partially what I proposed] and let the schools, decide for themselves, probably via a doctor's note for any unusual conditions.
While I empathize with the concerns on both sides of the Great Restroom Debate, I must ask: do we REALLY want to effectively open the door to government policing of our privates? Think about it for a bit and let that sink in. Will the police need to inspect what is inside our pants to make a proper determination as to gender?
This is a complex issue, but conflict is essentially over the label transgender being abused AND there are also those that don't accept that there can be a female mind in a male body or vice versa.
It seems to me that some unusual conditions are being overplayed politically, perhaps in response to a failure to acknowledge the conditions on the opposite side of the political spectrum.
Both sides may be losing since the over and underplaying battle over rare conditions is another in a long set of movements that blur the lines between male and female. Consider that in all our efforts to grant females more access to traditional male roles, and by proxy, this debate over transgender issues, has our culture downplayed all of the strengths and gifts that a woman has, that a man can not have?
Borrowing from the Monty Python, where a man declares that he wants to be a woman:
“STAN: I want to be a woman. From now on, I want you all to call me 'Loretta'. REG: What?! LORETTA: It's my right as a man. JUDITH: Well, why do you want to be Loretta, Stan? LORETTA: I want to have babies. REG: You want to have babies?! LORETTA: It's every man's right to have babies if he wants them. REG: But... you can't have babies. LORETTA: Don't you oppress me. REG: I'm not oppressing you, Stan. You haven't got a womb! Where's the foetus going to gestate?! You going to keep it in a box?!”
Transgender Label Abuse
First, let's deal with the possibility of abuse of the label, transgender.
If you don't want to shop at a place where they let guys dressed like girls in the bathroom, then don't. Let them feel the $ loss and maybe they'll listen, eventually. If you don't mind, then do shop there. Problem solved, right?
As for the schools, well, let those with rare conditions get a doctor or mental healthcare professional's note. Problem solved, mostly.
All others can be decided by the school board. Let the local people deal with these situations. And if the school board is off base, vote 'em out.
Hermaphrodites and Unusual Genitalia
Next let's deal with physical gender or what we we call sex
There are individuals who have certain rare conditions where their reproductive organs aren't easily classified. By my estimates, that means there are about 2 -3 people in my home town who are just a little different in this area. Other estimates say 1 in 300! But, despite a general lack of awareness of these types of genetics, if the logic is played out any further, it could mean a bathroom specific to each type of unusual genetics. Such a thing is simply unrealistic.
Mental Machinery
Another part of the debate is about those who seem to have some interesting mental machinery without the supporting abnormal genetics or genitalia that would correspond to their apparent mental state. Homosexuals are attracted to their own gender - how is this any different from a mental machinery perspective? Some of these transgender individuals go on to modify their bodies in significant ways. If such individuals dress, act like, and genuinely believe they are a woman, the real question is STILL whether or not they are doing so to be perverted, scare people, etc. or for other reasons.
Yet, there is much we don't yet understand about the mind-body connection, particularly, as it relates to exceptions. One idea is that for these exceptions, the brain may have developed differently from the rest of the body, while in utero, depending upon the mix of hormones such as testosterone and estrogen in the development environment or womb. Consider this article: on the transgender brain
If it is possible for the hormone mix to influence the brain, perhaps it is possible for chemicals which are said (depending on who you ask) to influence endocrine function, to have some influence on pregnancy. I wonder how many pregnant women they tested the chemicals out on : ) See [http://detoxproject.org/glyphosate/hormone-hacking/
here for a site with some discussion of the endocrine function] as it relates to glyphosate, the chemical used in many commercial weed killers, which may enter our food supply.
For a more esoteric perspective, who knows - until any one of us have died, do we really know how life works? Maybe such people just spent the last 100 lives being a woman and are having a hard time adjusting to life as a man?
As for the concerns on the traditionalist, really what is being said is that men are generally more perverted than women and will abuse the bathroom gender labels, therefore there needs to be some legal method to stop such things that might make people feel unsafe, ogled, or even molested while in the bathroom. Perhaps. I could see it happening. But, perhaps it has ALREADY happened? I've personally seen some men dressed up as a woman that I wouldn't have known had they not told me. What about dirty old men who like to touch little boys? What about any potential homosexual people who may want to ogle or molest people of their own gender, while in the bathroom and while NOT in the bathroom? What signs shall we use for these conditions? Why are there signs over the restrooms in the first place?
Another point made by a friend of mine, A. Cronshaw, is that bathroom signs indicate a space of trust. At present, anyone not "dressing the part", that is walking, acting, and talking like a women while in the women's restroom will quickly find themselves confronted. What if the bathroom signs for men and women were replaced with neuter and neuter - effectively dissolving any lines between the two genders. If a gender interloper should find himself in the wrong neuter bathroom, eventually, people may not sound the alarm due to what was once considered suspicious behavior having become socially acceptable. Under such conditions, can we expect to see more bathroom molestations?
Situational
Let's play this scenario out - a man enters the woman's restroom and is challenged. His response is: "well, I identify as a female". At this point, can he be asked to leave? Will someone be prepared to inspect his crown jewels or lack thereof to determine the actual gender? Lately, I've been seeing in the news and on my FB feed, accounts of women, perhaps not fitting the expectations of femininity, being accosted for "being a man in the lady's restroom"!
In discussing the issue with my wife, I also suspect that the odds of getting sexually assaulted are much greater at bathroom at a gas station at night, than some perverted gender interloper trying to assault someone in the Target bathroom. So what are we really talking about here?
IMO, this is yet another debate over labels and one-size-fits-all approaches which unfortunately the result of which is often unintended consequences such as the following story:http://www.upworthy.com/heres-what-itll-look-like-if-trans-…In the linked story, a man would HAVE to use the lady's room, if bathroom laws were passed without thinking about such unusual cases.
The legality of sexual assault would seem the same in either situation and there are laws on the books for that already. So what are we left with other than a sign saying: No perverts in the bathroom, or if you are a pervert, don't do perverted things in the bathroom. Sounds unrealistic even downright silly, right? Well, in order to pacify the fine folks of Anniston, Alabama - that is basically what they said. The law basically says, hey if you're in here to cause trouble, you go to jail for a year and pay a bigger fine. That ought to stop the pervert gender interlopers! Or at least some of them, right?
Personally, I suspect that if someone is deranged enough to try to sexually assault someone in the bathroom, that some gender sign is not going to stop them any more than a no perverts sign would stop anyone or a no guns sign would stop one of those sick souls shooting up a school.
With regard to the government, we already have tools to solve this problem - molesting people in the bathroom is ALREADY illegal, and I personally don't see a need to bring any more government into my pants than is absolutely necessary.
Lastly, perhaps there is a spiritual perspective that may be a bit out there, for some:
Gender in Language
For a brief demonstration, let's consider a biblical translation issue. The words Holy Spirit in our English bible is said to refer to one of the three He's of the Trinity spoken of in Christianity. However, if we trace the words, Holy Spirit, back to Greek we find that it is gender neutral. Going further back to the Hebrew we find that it refers to something feminine. Gasp? Is the Holy Spirit, a girl? In the book of Genesis, in our English Bibles, it is stated that God created man in his image, male and female he created them. That last part tends to get skipped over in just about any pulpit or backyard discussion of religion I've ever been a part of. Has something been lost in translation? Perhaps our culture afraid of G-d having feminine aspects? Many languages recognize some things as feminine, others as masculine, and yet others as neutral. Yet, in our English language, this is not the case. Perhaps this affects how we think?
Spiritual Religious Perspectives
The Amish are known to be a deeply religious people. Do the Amish people have transgender problems? If they do, perhaps such conditions might go under reported (perhaps such conditions have been underreported historically), yet if we consider an alternate view - perhaps different cultures and mindsets attract different types of spiritual entities for incarnation into this realm. Maybe a transgender person in an Amish community is rare due to the properties of that culture? I understand that in certain Indian and other cultures, a 3rd gender has been recognized for some time now. I wonder why. The broader picture is that gender has important spiritual implications.
Other Perspectives
I'd be open to any additional perspectives or facts I may have missed.