Guest Author
If Donald Trump were standing at a urinal in a public restroom and a transgender male (who nevertheless retained the soft features of a woman) sidled up next to him, how would Mr. Trump react?
Likewise, if Hillary Clinton entered a women’s restroom and noticed a husky, masculine-appearing but longhaired woman touching up her lipstick and straightening her skirt, what would Mrs. Clinton think and do?
It’s hard to say, because to my knowledge, no presidential candidate has given much attention to our nation’s varied laws about transgender use of public toilet facilities. And I surely don’t intend to do so with this column, mostly because the complexities of transgender issues exceed my understanding and available space.
On the subject of public restroom customs, however, I feel free to speak.
In the restroom of a cafe on the French Riviera in the spring of 1949, I had just tapped a kidney and was turning to wash my hands. But I had to wait a minute while an attractive woman combed her hair and otherwise checked her appearance in the mirror above the sink.
She finished, smiled at me and departed. Case closed. I saw no problem with a unisex restroom, on that day or thereafter.
Today’s transgender toilet-use controversies usually revolve around separate male and female restrooms in airports, theaters and other large gathering places. Conservatives tend to favor laws that require anyone born a male to use restrooms reserved for men, and anyone born a female to use strictly-women toilets. And never the twain should meet.
Liberals — and this usually includes transgendered persons — tend to believe that each person should use the restrooms that conform to his or her gender self-definition and feelings. If I genuinely think and feel I’m male or female, I should be allowed to comport myself as such. As one person phrased it, “The deciding factor should be what’s between your ears, not what’s between your legs.”
One suggested solution is worldwide unisex restrooms. For openers, millions of dollars in construction costs would be saved. Separate cubicles would still insure privacy, and it’s unlikely that many women would be shocked to see the backs of men standing at urinals.
A further — and sensible — move would be double or quadruple the number of sit-down cubicles in each public facility. This would acknowledge that women usually require more time for a restroom visit than men do. Cavernous multi-unit unisex restrooms would bring an end to that form of legalized anti-female discrimination, to the relief of all concerned.
Transgender bathroom laws vary throughout our 50 states. A recent chapter was written by the North Carolina Legislature, which passed a law requiring people to use bathrooms dictated by the gender shown on their birth certificates.
The law is enforceable only at bathrooms at schools, universities and state agencies. But howls of protest — from LGBT supporters as well as others — have echoed across the Tar Heel State. A number of major companies have promised to leave North Carolina if the law is allowed to stand.
The state’s attorney general, Democrat Roy Cooper, has said he will refuse to enforce the law. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory gladly signed the bill into law. This is an election year and Cooper would like to succeed McCrory. Neither man is transgender, but that probably won’t stop the election campaign from being a corker.
At this stage, transgender issues do not rank high on the list of concerns of most Americans. This may change as anti-LGBT forces assemble, organize and demonstrate their willingness to march backwards into yesterday, when men were men, women were women, life was peachy and, as Trump recalls it, America was great.
The big differences between then and now are honesty and public awareness. Gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons have always been part of the population. In the old days, they dwelled largely in shadows.
Now they are coming into the light, to join the hundreds of other mixed components of humankind. The blending is underway. Despite the bumps and glitches that may occur, it will go forward.
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Bob Driver’s column “The Driver’s Seat” appears each Wednesday in the Tampa Bay Newspapers. His email address is [email protected]. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
