The "bathroom argument," part n in an ongoing series

[modernwizard]

The parents of Coy Mathis, a Coloradan first-grader [with magenta hair?! how awesome is that?], have filed a discrimination suit with the state's Civil Rights Division because the school district will no longer let her use the girls' bathroom.

Why? Because they are obsessed with Coy's penis.

A letter that the Mathis family received in December states:

"....I'm certain you can appreciate that, as Coy grows older and his [sic] male [sic] genitals develop along with the rest of his [sic] body, at least some parents and students are likely to become uncomfortable with his [sic] continued use of the girls' restroom."

So a girl can't use the girls' bathroom because some people might be bothered [heaven forfend!] by the fact that her body differs from that of the majority of girls'.

Oooh! Oooh! I can play this game. We need to make separate bathrooms for every category of person whose body might conceivably bother someone else.

Okay, so we'll have to separate bathrooms based on race, fat, disability, age, sickness and shoe size, at the very least.

Is that school district serious? Are they honestly arguing that putative future squeamish prejudice trumps a person's immediate need to perform a basic human function?

The "bathroom argument": it's bullshit!

Comments

[seventhbard]

I for one am EXCEEDINGLY uncomfortable with a school that fully expects children to inspect one another's genitalia in the restroom. Nobody EVER tried to look at me when I was in a bathroom stall in high school.

Also, as Coy grows older, I'm more concerned she be safe and I'm not at entirely sure these people quite understand that putting a teenage girl (however conforming or non-conforming) in a bathroom with a bunch of teenaged boys is rather a whole 'nother kettle of fish from having a teenager of any sex or gender presentation in the privacy of a stall of the girl's restroom.

WHY THE FUCK IS IT SO THREATENING FOR SOME PEOPLE TO LET OTHER PEOPLE PISS IN PEACE?

[modernwizard]

Yeah, why is the school district so pruriently interested in some kid's penis? [That's what the "bathroom argument" essentially boils down to: an obsession with penises.] While sexual harassment and/or assault does occur in school bathrooms or locker rooms, there is no mandatory examination of what's in everyone's pants, even though the school district is laboring under the delusion that there is. No one is forcing anyone to stare at children's genitalia! For people who ostensibly have a problem with that, the school district seems to be training a very close mind's eye on the contents of one girl's underwear.


This "bathroom argument" is about institutionalized, public sexual harassment/assault of a girl because she has a penis. Wow, it's almost like the problem exists within the picayune, fearful minds of the bigoted cis people, instead of with the trans girl!

Now that I think about it, I need to add the "gender policing" tag to this entry.

[seventhbard]

Well, I'm not so much worried about her being sexually assaulted (though the kind of atmosphere of intolerance this sets a precedent for doesn't exactly help to discourage violent action against trans students), but kids can be damned nasty and someone presenting female waltzing into the boy's room is getting teased at best-- or she might end up with her head in a toilet.

As for the idea that trans people all go into the "wrong" bathroom so they can assault people with the "other" set of genitals... uhhhh I thought bigots all blanket mistook trans women for gay men, so wouldn't Coy want to assault the boys by their faux logic?

And come on, if someone is going to go into a lady's restroom to rape the people who are in there to pee/ apply makeup/ change their tampons/ smoke weed/ stand somewhere they are slightly less likely to be harassed, I kind of doubt they are bothered enough about the social conventions preventing them from entering to "disguise" themselves as a woman first.

It really just... the more one thinks about it, the more the headache grows...

[modernwizard]

Regarding the "piss in peace" question, that reminds me of Roy Zimmerman's Defenders of Marriage lyrics about anti-equality zealots:

We're an army of dicks
With a militant stance
Let's get the government out of our lives
And into our pants

I deplore gendered insults, but I have to laugh at this apt summation of the conservative perspective.