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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsStop Using Women And Girls To Justify Transphobia
On Wednesday, President Donald Trumps administration rescinded a guidance allowing transgender students to use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity in public schools. While the Obama era guidance clarified that trans students are federally protected from sex discrimination under Title IX, the Trump administration said that it wants to leave LGBTQ rights to the states. Rescinding the guidance opens the door to discrimination against trans students at this level, and sends the message that the government will not stand up for the nations most vulnerable kids.
A common claim that opponents of such protections for trans students make is that allowing transgender people into bathrooms endangers cisgender women and girls. In his much discussed appearance on Real Time, alt-right former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos told host Bill Maher that he makes no apologies for protecting women and children from men who are confused about their sexual identity. This argument perpetuates the myth that trans people are predators, when they are far more likely to face violence and harassment in restrooms at the hands of cis people.
Yet, Yiannopouloss line is a common refrain that continues to be used by those who care little about real, not mythical, violence against women. When walking back LGBTQ protections or promoting so-called bathroom bills, proponents of such legislation have said that allowing trans people to use the appropriate restroom means men can enter private areas that are reserved for women and girls, and that businesses that allow trans people to use the appropriate restroom pose a danger to wives and daughters.
But invoking womens safety while ignoring real violence faced by women and girls on college campuses, on the street and within their own homes is nothing more than a veil for hate. This so-called protection is a justification for transphobia and as cisgender women, were done being your excuse.
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Keep in mind, this was written by a cis-gender woman, not me and definitely read the rest of the article as it too contains some very good points!!
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)"They're going to rape the women and children!!!!!111"
We have seen this garbage against Jews http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/story10.htm
We've of course seen it with African Americans, and now with Transphobia.
So tired of this nonsense.
ProfessorGAC
(65,010 posts)We've seen fear as a political motivator nearly non-stop since 9/11 and to a lesser degree the entire Cold War.
I think it's silly, but i'm not surprised it still works.
Warpy
(111,253 posts)I know what trans women have to wear if they haven't yet had surgery to avoid looking like lumberjacks in dresses. There might be a penis in there but with so much Lycra between me and it, it is absolutely no threat to me or to any of those fluttery church ladies in pants who think their wives are helpless.
I'm sick of all this phony "protection." I never asked for it and I don't want it.
demmiblue
(36,841 posts)DU is not exactly a liberal bastion when it comes to this issue:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2951675
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022677428
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7150702
Behind the Aegis
(53,955 posts)For others, it allows their bigotry to shine on. Sometimes, it is difficult distinguishing between the two. But any group which starts off with the "won't someone please think of the children" (best Helen Lovejoy voice), suspicions are raised. The right's "concern" for the safety of women and children, even some on our side using that excuse, are pathetically hypocritical, and it makes it more difficult for people to not only understand and care about trans rights, but those rights of all women, who are also under attack!
I think it is also a disservice to transmen, who do exist, and are vulnerable too.
unblock
(52,205 posts)for starters, if a heterosexual man wants to harass, molest, or rape a woman or girl in the ladies' bathroom, no "bathroom bill" is going to stop them. laws against harassing, molesting, or raping might be a deterrent, but no stupid "bathroom bill" is going to make a difference.
moreover, if a person who looks like a man, dresses like a man, acts like a man, and thinks of himself as a man follows some women/girls into the ladies' bathroom, is it any great comfort to those women/girls that the law says it's ok as long as he has an "f" on his birth certificate?
it's really stupid if you think about it, but of course, they don't want anyone to think about it, they just want people to get scared and pretend that being mean to an object of fear is somehow a solution.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,411 posts)don't understand what being Transgender or Gender non-conforming is really all about. Anybody who wakes up one day and says that they are Trans and immediately barges into the ladies room without even the remotest concern about presenting as such to engage in inappropriate behavior is NOT Trans and, thus, would NOT be protected by anti-discrimination laws. Also, what's implied by these bathroom bills should really upset and offend non-Transgender men as well, since anti-Trans (women) people pushing these bills seem to single out a particular body part that all men and Trans women have (permanently or temporarily) as an existential threat to the safety of women and children. Plus, nobody is paying one lick of attention to the very real safety and comfort of Trans women having to use a male restroom and Trans men having to use a female restroom since they AFAB (would women really be ok with THAT? My guess is no)
Initech
(100,067 posts)The last time a trans person was arrested for a bathroom crime? Never, not once, ever. The last person to be arrested for a bathroom crime? Larry "Wide Stance" Craig" - a white male conservative GOP senator.
And our fucking president Donald Trump , walked into a women's changing room and just stood there. And this is the group far more likely to abuse women and get divorced more than any other group! They don't care about women, they only care about power.
Skittles
(153,150 posts)especially when if ANYONE disrespects women, it's the GREEDY OLD PIG PARTY
Solly Mack
(90,762 posts)kcr
(15,315 posts)I resent the implication that this is a thing cis-gendered women do as a rule, particularly if they're feminist. Milo Yaonoppolis is a scumbag.
I'm sorry, but it was the keep in mind, this is a cis-woman comment that touched a nerve. The Bill Mahr flap brought out the feminist bashing lately.
Behind the Aegis
(53,955 posts)If so, I think you misunderstood it. In no way is it blaming cis-gender women for transphobia, it is blaming transphobes who use the guise of "concern for women (and children)" as a weapon to attack transpeople, especially transwomen.
As for your touched nerve, I added that comment so people didn't assume it was me writing it, and I was adding a comment the author used when she self-identified as cis-gender. I was pointing out a cis-gender woman was standing up for transwomen, and admonishing those who claim to stand up for women but do it at the expense of another group of women, and even all women. Her comments point out how these so-called "protectors" of women are concerned for women when it suits their bigoted agenda (transphobia), but when it comes to all women (health issues and the like), then women are the enemy again.