Everyone in this country has the right to practice what
religion they wish, and to believe in what values they choose to. Therefore, the discussion of transgenders
being able to use their respective facilities of choice should be not be an issue
of religion or beliefs, but one of security.
The reason there is an issue of security, is due to the fact
that there is no easy, immediate method of determining whether a person is
truly a transgender versus a person simply dressed up as the opposite sex. A transgender person identifies with the
gender they are emulating. This means
they believe they ARE that gender, it is not just a pretense. Unfortunately, you can’t determine this by
just looking at a person. This means
that a man, who is not transgender, could dress up as a woman and enter the
women’s facilities without a second glance because there is no way to determine
that he is indeed NOT a transgender person.
Once inside, he can harass other women, intimidate them, and even
sexually assault them. Likewise, a
woman, who is not transgender, could dress up as a man and enter the men’s
facilities and do similar harm to the men.
Since we cannot determine person’s intent through simple
observation, perhaps the best solution is to create a third facility. A unisex facility that is open to all genders
and transgenders. This provides a
non-gender biased area for all transgenders, as well as providing the choice to
people who are comfortable with the possibility of having someone of the
opposite gender, or transgender, using
the same facility at the same time. Those who are not comfortable with this idea can
continue to use the original gender-biased facilities.
