Whose Rights Matter?
One of my most embarrassing moments was a good number of years ago, when not at all paying attention, I ALMOST went into the ladies' room instead of the mens' room. Fortunately someone asked me what I was doing before I actually did but I felt like the whole world was looking at me.
Use of the restroom is a private affair and one that has been traditionally divded by gender for many, many years. Not any more.
Some transgendered people have demanded the right to use the bathroom of their choice and have won the struggle at this point in time. It's all about their personal rights.
How about the rights of the genuine ladies who do not want someone who is biologically male, especially strangers, near them in such circumstances. Do their rights count for nothing? Apparently the only rights that matter are the rights of the maladjusted.
Human Rights. Normal people need not apply.
And forgive my crudeness, but a person's gender is not determined by the clothing they prefer but by how nature has equiped them. (Questions about surgical alterations aside.)
Use of the restroom is a private affair and one that has been traditionally divded by gender for many, many years. Not any more.
Some transgendered people have demanded the right to use the bathroom of their choice and have won the struggle at this point in time. It's all about their personal rights.
How about the rights of the genuine ladies who do not want someone who is biologically male, especially strangers, near them in such circumstances. Do their rights count for nothing? Apparently the only rights that matter are the rights of the maladjusted.
Human Rights. Normal people need not apply.
And forgive my crudeness, but a person's gender is not determined by the clothing they prefer but by how nature has equiped them. (Questions about surgical alterations aside.)
posted by shoprat at 9:25 PM
10 Comments:
Isn't it strange? We would have never thought of problems like this a few years ago.
I've always wondered why the guy's restroom doesn't have dividers and doors like the ladies room does. I just thought guys didn't care.
A friend of mine had a terrible experience. While he was relieving himself, a stranger in the restroom became arroused and began touching himself. My friend got out of there quickly!
Once again the rights of .0002% of the population are more important than the rest of us. Unbelievable!!
What good are one's rights without living up to one's responsibilities?
I am one of those "sexual minorities” and have lived as I do by the advise of trained medical professionals for over 16 years. I often seem to be lumped in with other minorities by the uninformed, buts a topic for another day.
The subject of public restrooms is a touchy one. I personal avoid them when at all possible partly because they are often filthy, but mostly because I know, wither I agree or not, that my presence upsets some other women. Frankly I think they may be flattering themselves since when I do use said restrooms, my mind is entirely focused on that’s far more urgent then anything concerning them.
I want to ask this. I look like a woman, act like one, work as one and obviously dress as one, if I am not going to use the women’s restroom when I need to go, where *am* I supposed to go? The men’s room? Coming home from work in a skirt and heels? I can’t see that as a smart idea unless I want to be assaulted. Maybe we need to have a 3rd restroom. I don’t see that as an option, the expense and physics of that would not be workable. I recall the huge expenses we want through to make public restrooms accessible to the physically challenged.
No, I am afraid that everything in life is not just black and white, and trying to make it that way so things conform to someone small world vision tramples on the very same rights those people say are being violated. If it is all about anyone, can’t be all abiut the human race accepting each other?
Serena, it's not about you, it's about the large number of women whose rights you think nothing of trampling. Do you even care how they feel. Obviously not. You appear to think only of yourself.
I'm a TS man who recently began transition. Like Serena, I try to avoid public restrooms and only rarely do I find myself in a situation where I need to use them. Personally, I wouldn't be caught dead in a men's restroom until I'm certain that other people are reading me as unmistakeably male.
But what will I do when I reach the inevitble in-between phase? Hopefully, I can avoid use of public restrooms altogether, but not everyone has that luxury.
I understand the non-TS side, especially that of women and their concerns about women-only space. But the men's restroom certainly isn't safe for a TS woman.
Of course, if a man wanted to go into the women's restroom for nefarious purposes, he wouldn't need to dress as a woman to do it, and isn't likely to go to so much trouble. The safety of non-TS women shouldn't be adversely affected by allowing TS women to use the appropriate restroom.
Unless we convert all public restrooms to gender neutral, (which even I have mixed feelings about) I'm not sure what the solution is. Perhaps more public awareness and visibility of TS people will help. A national discussion may illuminate new options.
Wolf
Isn't it interesteng that 'Serena' made the comment "No, I am afraid that everything in life is not just black and white,"
I see these folks as individuals that at some point in their life, they were convinced that their self worth was not sufficient, and they 'needed to make a change', so grey became the color of choice.
That is indeed sad, but not new. This attitude has been around for many generations, and has even been included in the bible when the Apostle Paul was addressing the Church in Rome:
Romans 1:22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion
Now this comment or more specifically me will likely take a direct attack, so I'll finish with this:
John 3:
19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.
One can speak the truth, but the static is so loud, they'll never hear it.
I can't argue with Gawfer's comment. He knows what he's talking about there IMO...
Placing moral issues on the back burner, my only response is that the tiny minorities must adapt their lives to the majority, not the other way around. Our social order cannot be expected to change for the sake of a very few. No one has the right to demand that the universe, or society, be ordered to their personal taste, but in society the larger groups set the standards of behavior. Not the smaller groups.
If they think society is wrong, then they need to change peoples' minds before they change the laws. Changing the laws first only creates anger and probably a backlash.
Anyone who would bypass the legislature and go straight to the courts to change the law does not believe in Democracy, which is by definition Majority Rule.
With all due respect, Shoprat, America is a Democratic Republic. A pure Democracy, at best, results in the oppression of minorities and at worst, leads to rampant genocide against them. As a Republic, we have laws to protect the rights of minorities.
I'll grant you that we need to change minds before we change laws. The focus in this case should have been on police harassment rather than restroom use.
Furthermore, I even get the impression that some TS people are going out of their way to cause trouble, but I think that occurs in any civil rights movement and may even serve the necessary purpose of putting us in the spotlight.
To Gawfer: Transsexuality is a birth defect. It is believed to be caused by hormonal imbalances in the womb during fetal brain development. Also, you might be surprised at the percentage of us who haven't even figured out our sexual orientations and have lived celibate lives, which the New Testament promotes.
Wolf
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