Trans People Poop Too

There's a lot of talk lately, especially on social media, about the law in North Carolina that mandates that people must use the bathroom of the gender on their birth certificate.  If you were born a man, you must go into the men's room.  If you were born a woman, you must go into the women's room.  For most of the population, this presents no problem at all.  But for transsexuals, it's not that simple.  You see, the title of the classic children's book "Everybody Poops" is also a fact.  Everybody pees as well.  Thus, regardless of what their genitalia looks like, transsexual people must also poop and pee.  But, because we have nothing better to do in America than literally have debates about shit, where transsexual people defecate and urinate is now a controversy.

Those who are in favor of the law are especially fond of pointing out that they do not want their daughters to see someone with a penis in the women's room, which seems like a perfectly reasonable concern to me.  They also point out that, without this law, predators can, under the guise of identifying with a different gender than they appear to be, and without any way to prove whether or not that is actually the case, take advantage of the situation and become legally-protected peeping toms.  This, also, is a reasonable concern.  However, it is NOT reasonable to say that transsexual people using the restroom of the opposite gender on their birth certificate ARE predators.  Very few people are making that argument though, although those who are could indeed be labelled as bigots.  But those who are not using that argument should not be put into the same category as those who are.

Those who are not in favor of the law are especially fond of pointing out that they do not want their daughters to see someone who looks like a man (apart from having a vagina) in the women's room, which seems like a perfectly reasonable concern.  They also point out that, with this law, transsexuals would not be able to use the bathroom they are most comfortable using, which is another reasonable concern.  Additionally, the law does not stop predators, as they can certainly prey on folks in locations other than restrooms, and predators who are attracted to the same sex rather than the opposite sex exist as well.

So, what both sides seem to agree on is that they do not want someone who is or appears to be a man using the women's room in front of their daughters.  Apparently, this is what makes the most people uncomfortable.  Of course, most restrooms have partitions, and no one ever sees genitalia.  In reality, it's locker rooms, where people shower and change in the open, where any of this would actually be an issue.  However, we can't modify the law to say that people can use the room of the gender that they most appear to be either, because this would offend transitioning folks, among others.  So what's the solution here?  Is there any way to please everyone?  Probably not, but I will offer my thoughts.

Home bathrooms are gender neutral, as was the bathroom in the hall of my college dorm.  That bathroom was used almost exclusively by horny college students, and I never heard of anything predatory occurring in there.  I never saw anyone's genitalia in there either.  So, personally, I don't have a problem with gender neutral bathrooms.  I wouldn't even have a problem if they were all gender neutral.  I really don't care whether I'm sharing a bathroom with a man, a woman, a transsexual, or all of the above.  But that's me.  If you're not like me, maybe you need to grow a pair (pun intended), or maybe you have a different way of thinking based on your own life experiences.  So I suggest that, in many places, we ought to have a men's room, a women's room, and a gender neutral room that anyone can use.  Men can use it, women can use it, those who were born a different gender than they now identify with can use it, and those who don't identify as either male or female can use it.

As far as people who use the men's room or the women's room, I really don't think anyone is inspecting genitalia.  At least I hope not.  So if a transsexual person uses a men's room or a women's room, let common sense and decency prevail.  If someone actually thinks a person is in there for a predatory reason or if they are deeply emotionally scarred by sharing a restroom with this person for some reason when there exists a gender neutral restroom option, then hopefully the authorities have wisdom when the case is reported.  I have a feeling this will be a pretty rare occurrence though.  Really, there are so many more important things to worry about in this world right now than where someone goes to the bathroom (human trafficking is one example, and also pretty much everything else).  Who cares, as long as it all makes it into the toilet, right?