Transgender people deserve privacy, dignity in public bathrooms
Posted May 17, 2011, at 8:42 p.m.
http://new.bangordailynews.com/2011/05/17/opinion/transgender-people-deserve-privacy-dignity-in-public-bathrooms/As we make our way around the public world — offices, stores, restaurants, work, school — we rely on having a private place to attend to our biological needs. Part of the privacy comes in being segregated by gender. Generally speaking, men would not welcome women standing behind them as they use a urinal, and women would not be comfortable with a man in the next stall.
People who identify with the gender that does not correspond to their birth gender deserve this same privacy. They are a small minority, and the public does not know much about their circumstances, so misconceptions and fears abound. But their use of bathrooms should be left to their own discretion, as is everyone else's.
A proposal to amend the Maine Human Rights Act has the goal of protecting the privacy of the nontransgender public in public bathrooms. This isn't necessary and, instead, it has the potential to embarrass transgender people and put them at risk of harassment.
