Earlier today I tweeted about a poll on Fox News that asked, “Would you be bothered by a transgendered person being in a public restroom with you?”. Neil Gaiman kindly re-tweeted it, as a result of which I think we handily crashed the poll and I got my handle RT’d all over the place.
Some people asked me questions about the poll, which I will try to address here.
The reason the poll exists is because of this story. Tyjanae Moore, a trans woman living in Houston, was arrested and jailed for using the ladies’ restroom because, in the opinion of the arresting officer, she was “really” a man. This is despite the city’s non-discrimination ordinance covering gender identity enacted earlier this year. The story was covered on the local Fox affiliate, hence the poll.
I’m not sure why the link to the poll was anonymized, but I’m guessing that it was done to enable trans people to vote without risking being tracked by people working for Fox. I got the story from a trans activist in London, and I suspect she got it from Monica Roberts, who is a native of Houston.
Some people also asked what the heck this is all about. For the benefit of those of you who don’t follow US news, the American right currently has its knickers well and truly in a twist over the “dangers” of trans people in bathrooms. Remember, as far as “Christian” fundamentalists are concerned, a trans woman is “really” a man, and a trans man is “really” a woman. So the Forces of Idiocy want to require people like this to use the men’s restroom:
Can you guess why fine, upstanding “Christian” men want the likes of Miss Addams (above) in their toilet? I can. And I don’t think it is anything to do with “protecting” women.
Of course is they are going to be consistent the same should apply the other way around. Are there hordes of concerned “Christians” demanding that people like this use the women’s toilet?
No, of course not. Funny how they have these double standards, isn’t it.
Update: Shortly after I went to bed I got a tweet telling me that the poll had closed. When Monica first tweeted about it Yes was at over 44%. When the poll closed it was down to 16%. Thank you, everyone!
I agree utterly that it’s terrible we do not know who will be in our toilets.
Therefore we should all use the same one. Then we’ll know that everyone is in there.
From what I understand – and I’ll be clear that my understanding on this issue is close to bugger all – this isn’t just an issue for the crazy right. Isn’t this debate – not who uses toilets, but specifically in regard to safe places for women – an issue in the feminist community?
Well if you are the sort of person who believes that people undergo hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery just so that they can sneak into women’s bathrooms then it is a safety issue.
Also if you are the sort of feminist who believes that all trans women are, by definition, rapists, because they violate the very notion of womanhood, then it is a feminist issue.
But in both cases you’d probably be deploying some sort of essentialist argument as to what “woman” means, and insisting that your theoretical construct trumps any practical considerations or the views of very many scientists, doctors, the law and so on.
From a feminist viewpoint I tend to think that we should restrict demand for safe spaces to times when women are actually at risk, or when uninterrupted debate is needed. Constantly imagining yourself to be a victim is bad for the psyche, and only encourages the Patriarchy to come up with more “threats” from which women have to be “protected”, which in turn makes women seem more weak and feeble.
I also think that denying someone with female anatomy who has been raped access to a rape crisis center is beyond cruel.
Anyway, you’ve met me. Do you think I should be forced to use men’s restrooms whenever I need to pee outside my home? Because that’s what Julie Bindel and her pals want to happen.
I really apologise if I’ve come across as someone who thinks that you should go to the mens room. Because that’s not the case.
Over the last year I’ve been exposed to a bit of feminist thinking, and I’ve found it fascinating, especially in the SF gender balance context. And through it all, and by asking questions, I was informed of this schism/group/whatever within feminist theory that might have an issue with a trans gender person using a womans toilet.
In other words, what I was asking was a genuine question, about what I understand is a complex subject. I apologise if it came off as trolling.
No worries, and sorry if I came over rather sarcastic, but I have little patience with supposed feminists who preach bigotry. Yes, there are feminists like that. Sadly many of the high profile ones are Australian. They are no better than any other group of professional hatemongers,
Can you guess why fine, upstanding “Christian” men want the likes of Miss Addams (above) in their toilet?
I only see the second picture, not the first, of Miss Addams. FYI.
If you’ve got an ad-blocker on, turn it off.
I’ve made local copies now so you should be OK.
Thanks.
And re. Josh’s comment, sorry. I thought I’d looked at the source (at which point, I saw just an empty pair of p tags) . . . but I realize now I used an inspector (which works on the generated HTML, not the downloaded HTML), so it was probably the ad blocker. Mea (basically) culpa!
I have more issues with safety and cleanliness than I do with which gender is in the room with me. If you got to go, you got to go. If I had no choice and the need was on me, I’d have no problem entering a men’s room. Of course there better not be any body between me and the stall when I’m in THAT sort of emergency.
Cheryl, thanks for getting the word out on that jacked up Fox news poll.
One of the reasons the right wing has focused on the bathroom issue is because it’s the only wedge issue they can come up with to spike the negatives for trans people when trans inclusive civil rights laws come up for adoption or they try to kill them with referenda.
Had we lost that poll, it would have been trumpeted by our local haters ad nauseum, but since we overwhemingly won it…dead silence.
For now..