Supporters, critics of transgender bills clash at hearing
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2015/10/06/supporters-critics-transgender-bills-clash-hearing/nnrXAMXrz6MiAKEEmu7BxN/story.html
Boston.com
By STEVE LeBLANC
Associated Press | 10.06.15 | 11:52 PM
BOSTON (AP) — Critics of Massachusetts proposals to extend non-discrimination protections to transgender people in restaurants, schools or any place that accommodates the public said the state should instead focus on the privacy rights of children and women.
At a Statehouse hearing Tuesday, Andover Republican state Rep. James Lyons said the bills could allow a 14- or 15-year-old boy to decide he is female and walk into a girl's locker room.
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Why is it we keep hearing the same old arguments: this might happen; that might happen, some guy is going to dress up as a woman and go into a bathroom, some teenager is going to declare himself a woman and go into the girl's bathroom at school. Yes it's possible though HIGHLY unlikely. Don't the predominantly male critics understand what it would take. At school a boy would have to start wearing skirts and dresses. First of all, if he's not transgender, he'll have to suffer the abuse that many trans people face - ridicule, abuse, and more for what? To sneak into a girl;s restroom? To see what? Most women's rooms I've seen have stall doors - nothing to see. Do you think his parents might ask why he's wearing a skirt and make-up to go to school?
As for the perv who would sneak into a restroom say in a train station, the person would have to leave home, most likely dressed as a woman, probably not very convincingly, travel the public streets where he too could be subject to attack by homo-phobes/trans-phobes. Not good odds just to get some jollies. A rapist is more likely to stalk a dark alley where few people are present, not a public restroom. And again, most stalls have doors for privacy. There's nothing to see and the rigmarole of cross-dressing for the opportunity would be too much, except maybe for a Mike Huckabee who said he wished he could be a teenager again so he could claim to be transgender to get into the girl's locker room. Frankly Mike, put on a skirt, stockings, and make-up, I'd like to see it, maybe then you'd understand what trans-people have to endure, especially early in transition.
Frankly I'd like to see any of these critics just try enduring what trans-people go through before they shoot off their mouths about WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN. Experience the reality before you tout your fantasy!
(Rant over)
begin{rant}
We know what has happened: we have had men going into women's toilets to harrass women.
Specifically, we've had several well-publicized cases of (male) self-appointed enforcers of gender normativity marching into women's toilets to evict people they believe (often wrongly) are trans women.
So, based on actual experience, the people women have to fear in women's toilets are not trans women, but the people who supposedly want to protect them from trans women.
Quis custodiet custodies?
end{rant}
Are they this worried about lesbians in the girls' locker rooms?
And if they're protecting the rights of transpeople they /are/ protecting the rights of children and women