1) The issue is at hand because North Carolina issued a law which legalized discrimination against transgendered people (well beyond just bathroom rights, by the way). This has forced Obama's administration to take a stance, and since the Bill undeniably restricts the rights of people, they have asked that the Supreme Court to review whether or not the law is constitutional. Now, you might say, "it doesn't restrict their rights, because they don't have the right to change their legal birth gender"; well, that's what the Supreme Court is going to review. In other words, conservatives put their hands in this first, not progressives. Your whole argument is not addressing the issue at hand, and you're making it out as though the federal government tried to force their beliefs on you. This is no way what has happened.Should the government be involved in such matters where one should piss?
No. I don't think so. Even if you are transgender, you should still be going to the same bathroom as you had done in the past (this is in our CURRENT scenario where we do not have a uni-*** bathrooms as a standard).
Why? because that person already have/had that reproductive system in the first place. Now they have a deformed one.
(yes go through all the surgeries you want, it is still the same just a different look)
Also, the people who are cis would acknowledge that you are trans and if you are faking it, at least they always have their guard up.
The problem is that stigma. That a woman looks like a man or vice versa. That's discriminating in a way.
Also, since we're having a gender neutral bathroom anyways, why would looks be the case?
The case should be whether or not that person is a pervert.
In any scenario, government has no reason to even be involved.
maybe building those universal bathrooms? that's I think the most they should do.
2) Your argument amounts to an appeal to the status quo, which is essentially fallacious. People have been doing things the way they have always done them because:
- Transgendered issues were not as visible until recently, because *** has been taken for granted as a determinant of gender until recently, and because transgendered people are a significant minority.
- Cis people have legislative power and are more likely to favor laws that emphasize the connection between *** and gender.
- Research on the connection between *** and gender has not been a serious scholarly issue of interest until relatively recently.
- It is extremely difficult to change the law to accept new identity groups, regardless of what that identity group is.
3) Conflating *** with gender is not self-evident, no matter how much people try to assume it is. Aside from the fact that *** as an essential determinant of gender is not treated as such in the vast majority of scientific and social scholarship, *** is a reproductive function. Gender is not a reproductive function. Gender is a set of behaviors that generally people argue are associated with that reproductive function, even if you believe gender is essentially tied to ***. Transgender people and those who support them argue that, no, gender is not dependent on ***, and gender should not be dependent on ***. Bathroom use is a behavior, and is more tied to gender. Since gender may be demonstrated to be fluid and not tied to ***, they should be allowed to do things like use the bathroom they want.
4) All a bathroom is, no matter how much symbolic importance people place upon it, is a place where you go to use the bathroom. However, it is a utility that everyone has some right to. Segregating a utility requires some justification; this principle is embedded in our Constitution. Men and women are segregated in bathroom use primarily based on the rights to privacy and safety. However, transgendered people also have a right to privacy, and should not be required to out themselves to everyone. Furthermore, the safety argument is arbitrary, because we let gay people use the same bathrooms as hetero people. In summary, the segregation of bathrooms is wholly arbitrary, and cannot really be defended.
Now, if we're going to stick with the segregation of male and female bathrooms because we expect generally that females will be more vulnerable to males - well, transmen and transwomen alike are vulnerable to violence by males (transwomen moreso than transmen). Furthermore, as I said, forcing transgendered people to use their own bathroom violates their right to privacy, so either we should have unisex bathrooms, or we should stop discriminating against transgendered people.
Finally, you're not walking around in the bathroom with your junk out, so really, no one's right to privacy is all that violated to begin with.
Even though it's just a bathroom, there are rights involved, especially in public institutions like schools, which is what this article and issue is about. North Carolina restricted the rights of trans individuals not only in bathrooms, but in other institutions as well.
5) A primary function of the U.S. Government is to guarantee and protect the rights of citizens. Granting protective rights to identities is part of this duty. This is what anti-discrimination laws are - to protect the rights of people who have historically have those rights threatened. If transgendered people had never experienced discrimination on a significant scale, then the government's involvement would be arbitrary, and against the principles of our Constitution. However, it is undeniable that the rights of trans people have been consistently infringed upon. Therefore, the federal government is right to be involved in this matter.
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