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TW: Graphic images below
Last week the Trump administration sent a pretty big message to the transgender community.
This means that transgender students no longer have any protection under the federal government. Trans “students [can’t] be called by their preferred name and pronoun, [aren’t] allowed to use the restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity, and, regardless of gender, [aren’t] allowed to wear a tux to prom or a dress in yearbook photos”. The problem with this action is that it is much bigger than just a bathroom, and just like the problem, the solution is so much bigger than protecting our women and children. There is something glaringly wrong with the rationale people are using to support Trump’s actions.
The age-old argument against trans bathroom bills, amongst other trans bills, is that they are doing it to protect female children and women. Fear mongering has convinced people that predators will abuse these kinds of bills in order to prey on children in the bathroom. Men will pretend to be transgender woman and sneak into bathrooms under these new laws and assault woman in the bathroom. Propaganda in favor of anti-trans bathroom bills has been circulating to invoke fear. Images like this are common in campaigns against these bills.
Let’s talk about some blatant problems and hypocrisy with this argument.
For starters this argument is extremely unfactual. “Experts on crime, like the police, state over and over again that NDOs (Non-Discrimination Ordinances) do not result in an increase in sexual assault or rape.” This means that these stories are nothing more than that, stories to scare the easily scared. Fear mongering is an extremely effective mobilizer, and they are selling this fear. These arguments are also extremely sexist towards women and female children. This argument perpetuates the idea that women need protection from men by men; in addition it perpetuates rape culture and the idea that only women can be assaulted.
Now lets shift the attention to the hypocrisy of this argument. These people say they are against trans bathroom bills because they want to protect woman from predators, but let us not forget that Trump himself can be described as a predator. So we want to protect our children from a fake predator, but when a real predator was in front of us they voted him into office. I am sorry for the harsh reality of that statement, but it is true. There are multiple recordings that demonstrate Trump sexually and verbally assaulting. This is what a predator looks like our President is who we should fear, not individuals who just want to pee in a safe space.
Lastly, to all the people who think that this issue is just about bathrooms please understand that it is much bigger than that. When we make these kinds of laws we are forcing trans people into unsafe locations and conditions. Evidently we are forcing trans individuals into the very same dangerous situations that we in theory are trying to protect woman from in bathrooms. We are telling them they aren’t worth protecting, or that they cannot be themselves. We have everything to gain by protecting trans individuals and almost everything to lose by not protecting them.
So I beg of you to shift your statement and instead of saying we need to protect woman lets say we need to protect everyone, and maybe let’s start by protecting people from our predator of a President.
What do you think of Trump’s stance on transgender rights? Let us know in the comments below!