Michael Dithers


by Michael Mahler


One of the frequent objections about anti-discrimination legislation on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression is that it will somehow mean that men claiming to be transgender will cross dress and use restrooms and presumably sexually assault women or expose themselves. 


For states that have had this sort of anti-discrimnation legislation, there was no increase in sexual assaults as a result of this legislation, nor verifiable reports of people using this as a defense. As a matter of fact, there don't seem to be any incidences of men crossdressing and entering women's restrooms and locker rooms to sexually assault. Heck, just try to get a cisgender male to wear a bright pink shirt most of the time. Even something that is just a color currently associated with the other gender is enough to make most men resistant.


Oddly enough, there was a time when some states required some segments of the population to share a unisex restroom, although they didn't use that term. A while back, I was at a meeting and some friends were sharing about having been active in civil rights efforts in the 50's and 60's. In the period when some states had racially segregated restrooms, there were generally three restrooms, not four. One restroom was for white males, another for white females, and the third was for people of color, whether male or female. So, if you were a black female in Alabama or Missisippi at that time, you were required to share a restroom with men of color. But of course, the focus then was on ensuring white privilege, so it didn't make a difference to those in power.


Many of you may have seen the recent viral video of a woman walking down the streets of New York City for a 10-hour period and getting harassed. There was an insane number of comments and many of the comments are from men who claim that this is just being friendly or are compliments. What no one seemed to be noticing is that there are apparently no comments from women in this thread saying anything like "I like getting this kind of attention" or "when I am walking down the street, and someone that has not even made mutual eye contact with me tells me that I am pretty, it is an ego boost that just brightens my entire day!" Isn't it odd that if this behavior is fairly widespread and is supposedly communicating a compliment that virtually no one that is the recipient of that kind of exchange is commenting that they enjoy it? 


The stark contrast for me is that when transgender people use the restroom that aligns with who they know themselves to be, there are no actual reported cases of problems happening as a result of where this is implemented and folks act like this is a sexual assault tidal wave ready to sweep the nation. But when actual interactions are happening where many women report that they find to be annoying, intrusive and possibly intimidating, it is just ignored as being not properly appreciative of compliments.


That is an incredible disconnect from my perspective. Permitting the lie of allowing people to use the restroom of the gender that they identify with = assaults gives legislators an excuse not to pass anti-discrimination legislation that the LGBT community needs. And it is beyond insulting that a "threat" that has virtually no evidence to back it up is taken seriously, but actual incidences that are harassing are treated as "you just don't know how to take a compliment."


On a brighter and happier note, it really is amazing how much progress is being made with marriage equality. On May 20 of this year, Pennsylvania became the 19th state, Here we are six months later, and we are up to 35 states, which is almost double! As I write this, it is not known whether the US Supreme Court will take up the issue. Initially, they weren't going to get into it because all of the federal appeals courts since June of 2013 had ruled for marriage equality. Now that the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled differently than the other courts, and if the Supreme Court does take this up for this session, it is conceivable that we might have a nationwide ruling by the end of June, 2015.


Also, next October will mark the 20th anniversary for the first-ever Erie LGBT Family Portrait on the steps of the Erie County Courthouse. A copy of the photo is in the Bicentennial Time Capsule at Dobbins Landing. Maybe we should plan an anniversary photo next fall?

Videos

10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman - Posted Nov 24, 2014