We’ll admit it. The issue of transgender people using public restrooms is confusing. While that shouldn’t be an excuse for continued discrimination, the issue is perplexing.
In some regards, one might ask, how did this come up? There must have been instances of discrimination. But if someone has the genitalia and/or reproductive organs of a male, but considers him/herself a woman and dresses and behaves like a woman, then is anyone really going to stop him/her from entering a women’s restroom? How would anyone know the person wasn’t a woman?
What about a person who has ambiguous genitalia and/or reproductive organs and masculine physical features, but still dresses and behaves like a woman? As we said in our original editorial on this topic, which is more disconcerting, having a masculine-looking but feminine-dressed person use a men’s restroom or a women’s restroom?
And what if the masculine-looking but feminine-dressing person really is a woman? Will people make that woman use the men’s restroom because they suspect she may be a biological male? Will there need to be “gender and sex” police stationed outside all bathrooms?
Yes, the issue is confusing (and we haven’t even broached the subject of using public showers, an even more frightening idea for many transgender people), but it isn’t acceptable that Mayor Jim Torrey and the Eugene City Council used “confusing” to justify continued discrimination.
Eugene, apparently, is tolerant of difference just as long as it’s not too different. From reading local press and hearing elected officials’ comments, it seems that transgender issues are just too much for people to wrap their brains around.
It’s really not that difficult. Some people are born with genitalia and reproductive organs that are clearly either male or female, and some of those people also identify with the masculine or feminine gender, respectively. But some people identify with a gender that doesn’t match their sex.
In some cases, the genitalia does not match the reproductive organs. Yes, Virginia, some people are born with a penis and ovaries. Big deal. These people deserve the same respect and dignity — and right to use public facilities — as people whose gender matches their sex.
We do have an easy, obvious solution to the problem, not that anyone will adopt it: Make restrooms unisex, as is common in other countries. Then, the whole issue of who is entering which restroom would evaporate. (And male predators currently rape women in restrooms, so that specter brought up by councilors is fallacious.)
With unisex facilities, parents worried about their opposite-sex children could use the bathroom with them. And think of the money businesses would save — they could consolidate expensive toilets and sinks.
It’s sad that City Council will have to revisit this issue when its more comfortable with the idea. In the meantime, transgender people are less comfortable in public, and that’s wrong.