Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Those of us who follow the tactics of the anti-gay right have noticed a trend over the last couple years. Any time an ordinance or law comes up that would forbid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender expression, the opposition now tries to make it all about transgenders -- and their main argument is that men will begin cross dressing in order to get into public women's bathrooms.
We know this is a national strategy because we've seen the same pamphlets and commercials show up in city after city, from Gainesville, Florida to Kalamazoo, Michigan. One famous one showed a shifty-looking man looking vaguely evil as he follows a little girl into a girl's bathroom, presumably to do something evil to them.
None of this is reality, of course. There isn't a single documented case anywhere in the nation, as far as I know (and I've asked religious right leaders making this claim for examples and never heard any), of a transgendered person or a cross dresser (which is not the same thing) committing any crime in any bathroom anywhere in the country. In fact, the only examples they can come up with are of heterosexual men doing it. Do they really think that men who want to spy on or molest women in bathrooms are going to go have sex change operations to make it easier?
But I'm noticing a related meme cropping up, the idea of "biology-based bathrooms." Any suggestion that transgendered or transsexual people should have equal rights is called an attack on biology-based bathrooms. But this is being made by people who are, of course, profoundly ignorant of biology -- and in particular, of the biology of transgender, transsexual and intersexual people.
1 of every 1000 males in this country is born with XXY chromosomes. Are they male or female? Which bathroom should they use? The anti-gay bigots want the world to be a simple black and white place where everyone is obviously male or female, but the real world just doesn't line up. Yes, most people fit comfortably into those categories, but a significant minority do not. And they didn't choose to be that way. The bigots simply want to pretend that they don't exist.
Here's an article from the Worldnutdaily about the possibility of allowing transgendered students to choose which bathroom to use in schools in Maine. Do these wingnuts really believe that a high school kid is going to pretend to be transgendered in order to be allowed to use the girl's bathroom so they can sneak a peek? Seriously? Do they not recognize the abuse taken by any kid who is even perceived as being less than perfectly male or perfectly female?
The truth is that they do recognize it. They just don't care.
Politics
Comments
My wife and I had the opportunity to go out the other night. We spent some time at a rather high-end bar in NYC. There was only one bathroom. It was all stalls with floor to ceiling separators. Im sure this would freak out the wingnuts as well, but the "jaded NYers," as well as the Bridge and Tunnel crowd didnt seem to care.
Posted by: Dave | March 5, 2010 9:26 AM
I think it's more likely Ted Haggard or Mark Foley would pretend to be men to get into men's rooms.
Posted by: Skip | March 5, 2010 9:38 AM
I looked at the link, typical crazy I thought until I reached the bottom of the page and noticed the advert for Urilift a company selling urinals designed to be used in public places. Apparently these things rise out of the ground at night for any drunks who were thinking of pissing in shop doorways.
I would probably find this funny anyway but combined with the pearl clutching over people using the wrong bathroom it has to win funniest thing I've seen this week.
Posted by: Matty | March 5, 2010 9:42 AM
Here's a fact of biology: Everyone poops. Get over yourselves.
Posted by: Jason Kuznicki | March 5, 2010 9:47 AM
Everyone poops but not all poops are patriotic Christian heterosexual poops.
Posted by: Captain Obvious | March 5, 2010 10:09 AM
cuz they're red, white, and blue?
Posted by: VikingMoose | March 5, 2010 10:14 AM
And why not get over it and build gender-neutral bathrooms ? Oh, this would be unfavorable to dudes, as the queues are longest (pun intended) in front of female toilets...
Posted by: Jérôme ^ | March 5, 2010 10:17 AM
I have no problem with unisex bathrooms as long as there are lockable stalls. Of course, I've run into the men's room at more than one concert because I just couldn't wait. In my experience, men at urinals are far more freaked out by the lone woman running to the stalls than women are by men who accidentally wander into the women's room. (It happens.)
Posted by: Personal Failure | March 5, 2010 10:18 AM
In my experience, men at urinals are far more freaked out by the lone woman running to the stalls than women are by men who accidentally wander into the women's room. (It happens.)
And when men accidentally wanders into the women's room, it's the guy who gets freaked out the most.
Posted by: gwangung | March 5, 2010 10:23 AM
I think all bathrooms should be unisex, with everything in stalls. If the private stuff is behind a divider, then what's the problem if men and women wash their hands standing beside each other?
Posted by: catgirl | March 5, 2010 10:41 AM
In Damascus, Syria, for pete's sake, they have unisex bathrooms, without doors--only curtains. You know, that famous hotbed of liberal sexual amorality, Syria!
Posted by: James Hanley | March 5, 2010 10:46 AM
"Don't care," hell. They _encourage_ it. Ask any high-school kid who's perpetually tormented over his (real or imagined) gayness, and you'll probably find the worst of it comes from the good Christians.
Posted by: anon | March 5, 2010 10:50 AM
Just to clarify - the term "transgender" does include cross-dressers, drag queens, gender-queers, inter-sexed, and transsexuals. It's a broad-based term that describes those who present themselves in gender-noncomforming ways, sometimes in very limited social contexts.
The term "transsexual" describes those who are so uncomfotable with the gender they were assigned at birth (typically based on genetalia) that they choose to live their lives presenting themselves as the gender they feel is correct. This group of people is more likely to have cosmetic surgeries, use hormone replacement therarpy, and genital reassigment surgery.
The instance of transgenderism is much greater than stated, possible more than 1% of the population. The instance of transsexualism is much less, but possible as much as 1 in 250.
Regardless, the reality is that there are no documented cases of any transgender person violating women or girls in restrooms.
Posted by: Audrey | March 5, 2010 10:51 AM
What exactly do they think goes on in a women's bathroom? I think they've watched a
few too many "Chained Heat"/"Debbie Goes to High School" flicks. Sorry guys. Just rows of (usually) locked stalls.
Posted by: nankay | March 5, 2010 10:58 AM
And the sad irony is that trans women are at much higher risk of sexual violence (and just plain violence) than cis women. Forcing a trans woman to use the men's bathroom is placing her in danger, as well as being humiliating and demeaning.
But, like anon @12 said above, I suspect for the people proposing this, that's a feature, not a bug.
Posted by: KristinMH | March 5, 2010 10:59 AM
This may be a little off-topic but men with Klinefelter's syndrome (XXY) have male genitalia and are classified as male. There are medical conditions where children are born with ambiguous genitalia and there may be a real question of is this child male or female, but not with Klinefelter's or Turner's syndrome (a female with a single X chromosome).
Posted by: anonymous | March 5, 2010 11:05 AM
I also favor unisex bathrooms with the caveat that the men really have to learn to either sit for everything or raise the damn seat. This is, of course, true for men (only) rooms as well.
I have patronized a number of bars with side by side bathroom doors where the sign on one indicates the gender but is pointing to the other door and vice versa. Always a few people who are too drunk to follow instructions or too desperate to pay close attention. They are the ones quickly scurrying to the other door. Or not.
Posted by: MikeMa | March 5, 2010 11:07 AM
Everything old is new again. I remember way back when one of the arguments against passage of the Equal Rights Amendment for women was... unisex bathrooms. And before that, the Civil Rights amendment... and bathrooms.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Posted by: NancyNew | March 5, 2010 11:17 AM
Why would men want to cross dress to stand in line to use the women's restroom, when there's never a line at theirs?
Do men think the women's room is some amazing place that they just can't wait to get into? It's not. It's a public restroom.
Crazy.
Posted by: Comixchik | March 5, 2010 11:27 AM
No, they do care--they celebrate it. Witness their screaming resistance to anti-bullying measures in schools.
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | March 5, 2010 11:36 AM
"Any suggestion that transgendered or transsexual people should have equal rights is called an attack on biology-based bathrooms."
It's the War on Toilets! Let's save traditional toilets, as God mandated them in the Bible!
Posted by: Christophe Thill | March 5, 2010 11:46 AM
I'm all for unisex bathrooms, but only if we can do it without giving up urinals.
Posted by: Captain Mike | March 5, 2010 11:47 AM
These people really do live in some kind of alternate universe or something.
To give some context for the rest of this, I'm a transgendered person. The absolute last thing any of us wants to do is call attention to it in a public place. If a trans-woman (born male but presenting as female) walked into a public restroom and started molesting a woman -to say nothing of a little girl-, the speed of the trans-woman's arrest would be astonishing. And the kinds of treatment we can expect from police is something that all transgendered people are acutely aware of. It's so surprising and relieving to receive respectful treatment from police that I actually write letters of gratitude to supervisors when it happens. And then there's the matter of actually going to jail or prison. I shudder to think about the kind of treatment we'd receive there.
All of that was my long-winded way of saying that it would be a very stupid trans-person indeed that would even think of molesting a non-transgender in a public restroom (or anywhere else, for that matter). In fact, it is actually the other way around. Transgendered people are the victims of harassment and assault (sometimes sexual assault) by gender normative people in restrooms every day. It often goes unreported due to the stigma of existing, but again, it's something that we all know we could fall victim to.
Finally: Thanks for bringing this issue to light, Ed! It's important, and I wish more journalists would talk about it. =D
Posted by: Echo | March 5, 2010 11:59 AM
@22 Captain Mike --
That seems a use/architctural issue. Whether they are unisex or not, I cannot see the designers of a stadium or other high traffic restroom giving up urinals -- they get people in and out faster. I would imagine that some smaller locations might not bother. Where the dividing line is would be judged by architects and efficiency experts.
@19 Comixchik --
Womens bathrooms ARE amazing places: Im given to understand that the vast majority of them have changing tables. (Granted, Mens rooms are getting better on that.) Ive even been told there are couches in some of them. Why you would want a couch in a public restroom is beyond me, but there you go.
@8&9 -- My experience differs. Dunno what else to say about that
One other thought on all this -- I have heard women defend gender segregated bathrooms on the basis of safety. (That is saftey of "normal" women from "normal" men, not a transgender thing.)
Posted by: Dave | March 5, 2010 12:04 PM
This sort of attack fullfills several functions in the attack on Homosexual-Rights.
Right now, there is a big battle to end the DADT stuff in the military, so that Homosexuals can openly serve their country. Operative word--here--*Openly. Meaning that there are already and always have been decorated military heroes in the U.S. Military who are Gay. If Gays are allowed to openly serve, then any attack on any gay person anywhere will be hard pressed to stick, because once a cultural group is openly acknowledged in uniform, they have officially arrived---. It won't solve all their problems, but it opens up the opportunity for homosexuals to be treated absolutely as equals across the board at some future date.
Equating Homosexuals with Transexuals and people who suffer some sort of pathological sexual deviance is an attempt to distract the public from the normalizing effect of Homosexuals being in the military and being integral to the success of its missions in a time of war. Then its not just about men loving men or women with women, its about dirty monsterous perverts molesting children and cross dressing with the sole intent to trick us into thinking they are the other gender--for some neferous, evil purporse.
If the Reich can get that to stick, then the debate can be derailed and turned into an argument about criminal sexual acts {all taped onto the backs on homosexuals} and cease being about human beings who happen to prefer same sex partners.
The Catholic Church used that quite successfully when looking for a scape goat for all the horredous child molestation cases that have been taking place over the last 800 years? Oh it couldnt have been due to some sexual paraphilia--no it had to be exclusively because of gays.
That derails the dialogue, reframes the debate, and makes the potentially deep discusison about abuse of children by authority figures into one that simply blames homosexuals exclusively for all the church's ills without addressing the abuse of positional authority, the coverups, the foisting of known molesters onto Native Kids at boarding schools and the like--it wasn't institutional abuse--nope it was just them gays!
Biological bathrooms are simply one more method of this sort of attempt to derail honest dialogue.
Posted by: Seeing Eye Chick | March 5, 2010 12:06 PM
I would add that using Transexuals as the image makes convenient use of a very vulnerable minority that doesn't always have the numbers or the voice to defend themselves from large scale social or legal attacks. Transexuals are the minority within a minority. Most that I have met are decent people that I wouldn't mind having as a neighbor.
I have known some, that served in the military as well. But then became postop after service.
They should not be punished for gender dysphoria or for making their lives as best they can through cosmetic or surgical means. At the end of the day, they are simply human beings and we should afford them human rights just like we should to everyone else.
Posted by: Seeing Eye Chick | March 5, 2010 12:12 PM
In a lot of gay bars I frequent, there are two seperate bathrooms with single toilets, and each has a urinal. They are both "Unisex".
Posted by: marilove | March 5, 2010 12:12 PM
You're all missing the real point: conservative males don't want trans-women and male crossdresser's to stop use men's public restrooms.
Posted by: Dr X | March 5, 2010 12:36 PM
The biggest problem I see with unisex bathrooms is the conflict of the unwritten social rules: men *don't talk* in a public bathroom, and women do. Well, that and if you and your partner are using the same restroom at the same time, who holds the bags?
Which is to say: no problem at all. And it would be much safer for children who are not gender-matched with their caregiver.
Posted by: JustaTech | March 5, 2010 12:37 PM
It wouldn't freak me out to have transgendered and transsexual people in the bathroom with me. Republican elected officials on the other hand ...
Posted by: Fifth Dentist | March 5, 2010 12:46 PM
Yeah, I've heard similar but I just don't understand how I would be less safe in a public bathroom with locking stalls than I would be anywhere else in public. Is it simply that I'm supposed to be mortified if men find out that I have bodily functions?
Posted by: catgirl | March 5, 2010 12:51 PM
I'm confused. Do these people have separate men/women bathrooms at home? If not, they need to shut up. A toilet is a toilet (or urinal); stick one of each into every stall and be done with it.
Posted by: Invisible Dragon | March 5, 2010 2:29 PM
Invisible Dragon, how many people 1) have strangers stop by their house to use the bathroom and 2) have multiple toilets per bathroom? :p
Posted by: JohnV | March 5, 2010 2:51 PM
Living in a dorm, I shared a bathroom with lockable stalls and showers with men. Unless the third bathroom on many dorm floors has been elminated or been allocated to one gender or the other, I would imagine it still happens. The world has not ended because we had co-ed bathrooms.
I would imagine that transgendered people in a public bathroom would generally be neater and more considerate than college freshman who just disovered beer because of the whole not wanting to call attention thing.
Posted by: katydid13 | March 5, 2010 2:53 PM
If those social conservatives really cared about protecting women and children, they'd lend their full support to unisex restrooms. It means a doubling of traffic, which means a halfing of the mean uninterupted interval. You can't rape someone when people are coming in to use the toilets every five minutes. Additionally, it'd make security much easier to enforce - whoever is in charge won't have to worry about being accused of peeping tomism if they go in to investigate a paniced cry.
But this isn't about safety, really. It's about preserving the historical distinction of genders - where men are real men, and women are real women, and never must the two be confused or intrude upon each other's traditional roles in society.
Posted by: Suricou Raven | March 5, 2010 2:55 PM
Dave@24,
The reason why women don't want unisex lavatories is usually about hygiene, especially if there are no urinals.
Posted by: Hathor | March 5, 2010 2:58 PM
Hathor@36
Are you suggesting that the women who told me they were worried about security were lying to me? I agree with catgirl that its not a rational fear, but none-the-less, it is their stated fear.
As far as hygiene, at a recent work place of mine, there was an issue with cleanliness of the restrooms. The issue was both men and women, but after an after-hours examination of both, it was generally agreed that the women were worse.
Posted by: Dave | March 5, 2010 3:10 PM
@catgirl @31: It is a well known fact that rapists, despite having no respect for the rights of others or the rule of law, are incapable of entering a bathroom they haven't been invited into. They are very similar to vampires in that respect.
@Dave: That is what the experiences of my female friends would suggest. The hypothesis put forward by a co-worker is that some women don't want to touch their bare bottoms to a public toilet seat, so they hover over the seat and cause a bit of overspray.
Posted by: Captain Mike | March 5, 2010 3:34 PM
Thanks for clearing that one up for me. I was thinking that maybe there are women out there who wear bullet-proof bodysuits and pulling them down to pee leaves their most sensitive ares unprotected against the stray gunfire that we encounter so often in public bathrooms.
Posted by: catgirl | March 5, 2010 4:04 PM
He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the restroom of the LORD.
Posted by: Anton Mates | March 5, 2010 4:35 PM
One famous one showed a shifty-looking man looking vaguely evil as he follows a little girl into a girl's bathroom, presumably to do something evil to them.
Right. Because that sort of perviness NEVER happened before teh libruls started talking about gay rights and transgender this-or-that. Oh wait, it did. Never mind.
Posted by: Raging Bee | March 5, 2010 4:42 PM
I vote we go the same route that the Japanese use for public restrooms, a porcelain hole in the floor that you squat over. Just don't pee your pants, it's embarrassing to explain how you pee'd your butt crack.
Posted by: I served in silence | March 5, 2010 4:58 PM
JohnV @ 33:
The Japanese didn't seem to have a problem with unisex Western-style bathrooms when I lived there. It even took me a couple of weeks to get used to the segregated restrooms back in the US.
If strangers are a problem, why does anyone use a public restroom, unisex or not?
Posted by: Invisible Dragon | March 5, 2010 5:01 PM
My wife would prefer that I not use any of our bathrooms.
Posted by: Dr X | March 5, 2010 5:22 PM
Dr X,
I had that problem as well but got it settled by volunteering to clean one weekly. Worked like a charm.
Posted by: MikeMa | March 5, 2010 6:07 PM
Sadie Morrison "Witness their screaming resistance to anti-bullying measures in schools."
Liberty, for them, is the right to treat the out-group like shit. This is exactly the same as when we insist that biology class teach biology, making all the Good Christians feel bad. True story.
Dave "Why you would want a couch in a public restroom is beyond me, but there you go."
It's their treehouse. For girls, trips to the bathroom are, apparently, a social experience. For men, it's the place where we poop.
Seeing Eye Chick "I would add that using Transexuals as the image makes convenient use of a very vulnerable minority that doesn't always have the numbers or the voice to defend themselves from large scale social or legal attacks. Transexuals are the minority within a minority."
But that's the best kind of minority to bully! One gets to profess all the faux outrage one wants at their mere existence (with unfortunate incidents of violence that one in no way supports in any manner other than one's irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric) with none of the risk that "they" can form groups large enough to defend themselves.
catgirl "is it simply that I'm supposed to be mortified if men find out that I have bodily functions?"
/me puts fingers in ears La la la la!
JohnV "Invisible Dragon, how many people...have multiple toilets per bathroom?"
I was in a classy house once, and it had two. One was broken, though. Whenever you flushed it, water squirted up out of it.
Posted by: Modusoperandi | March 5, 2010 6:56 PM
Modus:
When were you at my grandparents' house? :-O
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | March 5, 2010 7:02 PM
Modus:
Crocodile Dundee in New York!
Posted by: MikeMa | March 5, 2010 7:31 PM
That's not a toilet. It's a drinking fountain.
Posted by: Dr X | March 5, 2010 7:52 PM
I recall that during the (unsuccessful) struggle to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, opponents frequently used the argument that if the law passed, separate men's and women's restrooms would become illegal. Of course, that was totally bogus, but I wondered if maybe these folks had never flown on commercial airliners. Some things never change. Decades later and they are still obsessed with public toilets.
Posted by: Gerry L | March 5, 2010 11:30 PM
@Dave #37:
Interesting. That's the opposite experience from mine, as the public unisex bathrooms that I went into were usually smelly, and when the bathrooms were segregated, it was the women's restroom that was cleaner and didn't smell pervasively of urine. (And there wasn't urine in the trash cans, either.)
Then again, the women's room had more toilet paper and napkin wrappers on the floors to clean up.
Posted by: Makyui | March 6, 2010 4:08 AM
To the anonymous poster who said that XXY may be off-topic: I think not. Any time some comparison to a "normal" male is made by throwing in the XXY card is preposterous. To those who think it's necessary, do your research - BTW, Google is not synonymous with "research" - XXY men are just as much a male as anyone. Ask my wife. *I* am a confirmed XXY male with Klinefelter Syndrome. And trust me - I have a penis.
Posted by: bobsbs | March 6, 2010 9:44 AM
Interesting to hear people suggest that men freak out if a woman is in the men's than vice versa - my experience as a female-bodied genderqueer who gets read as male around 60% of the time (in the UK - seemed to be about 95% of the time in the US on a recent visit) is that while women can get pretty aggressive in defending "their" space, whereas men might well be unnerved but tend to let one get on with using a stall - assuming it's "just" a matter of being a women. That said, due to starting hormonal treatment soonish, it looks like soon I'm going to be using the men's exclusively, rather than being able to pick and choose depending on what seems easier/safer in the situation and this does give me pause for thought in terms of the increased risk of getting gay-bashed as a relatively "feminine" man. It goes without saying that I'd feel much happier and safer with more gender-neutral bathrooms around.
Posted by: Sivko | March 6, 2010 3:15 PM
@52 - You are indeed a male just as all XXY men are. However, whenever the validity of any trans person is attacked (as in the bigots who are the subject of the OP), the first thing they jump to is our genetics, claiming that even if we are post-op, our genetics are the determining factor in to what sex we "really" are (and thus what bathroom we should use). So, as someone who's genetics are not a cookie-cutter representation of your sex, you not only flatly disprove their simplistic ideas, but you would also be a target for them if they had their way.
Posted by: Sas | March 6, 2010 4:53 PM
My two bits: it seems like safety has more to do with how busy the bathroom is than sex segregation (although at my school, the women's rooms are locked---which is a major hassle for female guests).
As far as cleanliness goes, I have no idea whether men's or women's rooms are typically cleaner, but I'll gladly concede that when booze is involved, men's accuracy plummets, which has some obvious downsides.
Posted by: MPL | March 6, 2010 5:36 PM
Sas: My only beef is from the original article which states: "...1 of every 1000 males in this country is born with XXY chromosomes. Are they male or female? Which bathroom should they use?" By throwing around "XXY" as if an XXY male has both male and female parts is absurd. That a recent movie with the title "XXY" is about a boy WITH both parts doesn't help matters; it changes the public's perception that XXY males are freaks of nature. WE are not. That's all I'm saying.
Posted by: bobsbs | March 7, 2010 12:26 AM
Note also in the Christian 'homosexuals and transexuals are perverts' schtick that when they talk about 'homosexual' priests who committed child abuse, they conveniently ignore the huuuuge numbers of female victims of Catholic pedophiles. It's not their sexual orientation... it's the fact that they are pedophiles. BIG difference.
Posted by: Jess | March 7, 2010 7:32 AM
As all men know, beautiful women do not defecate. FACT.
...Or, at least, that's what we prefer to believe. Unisex restrooms are a terrible idea, as they might undermine our firm belief that ladies do not have indelicate bodily functions. :-)
Posted by: Jimmy | March 7, 2010 9:25 AM
Ed - Can we have a link to an image of a non-biology based bathroom*? - Thanks, Dingo
----
* Presumably based on mineralogy, crystallography or cosmology or something.
.
Posted by: DingoJack | March 7, 2010 9:32 AM
"In fact, the only examples they can come up with are of heterosexual men doing it."
Is this implying that all transgenders and crossdressers (yes I know CD's are TG's but apparently he doesn't) are all homosexual? Damn, and for 49 years I've thought I was hetero.
Oregon law allows the use of the restroom that matches your gender presentation. Haven't had any issues here.
Posted by: Cinmarie | March 7, 2010 4:13 PM