11th June 2014, 1:38 PM, Nick Duffy

A poll has found that 59% of Americans think that trans people should have to use the bathroom associated with their birth gender.

The poll, conducted by SSRS on behalf of CBS News, asked participants to pick between the statements "Transgendered students should use the bathrooms/locker rooms of their birth gender", and "Transgendered students should use the bathrooms/locker rooms of their preferred gender".

It found that 59% of Americans overall believed they should use the bathroom of their birth gender, with just 26% comfortable with them using their preferred bathroom

More: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/06/11/poll-majority-of-americans-oppose-trans-people-using-preferred-bathroom/

We clearly need monitors in all bathrooms now to inspect genitalia at the door.
/sarc

Can you imagine Buck Angel being forced to use the ladies' room? 

What this proves is that most Americans remain completely ignorant when it comes to trans* issues.  The good news is that I'll bet we can sway 10% of them within 10 years and the majority will be with us.  Look at same-sex marriage stats now vs. 10 years ago.

And a lot of those 59% probably have already used the bathroom in the presence of a transgender person and did not know it.

Quote from: CandiceSkirvin on June 11, 2014, 03:40:25 PM
I absolutely cannot imagine Buck Angel being forced to use the ladies room. That's absurd. I also cannot imagine Lea T being forced into the mens. This is because the truth is that people don't tend to care what restroom you use as long as you look like you belong there. The problem most people have is with people who don't look like they belong there. And that has nothing to do with being transgender. I used to work with a very butch lesbian who had been confronted by women in multiple public restrooms with that ''uhhh, you're in the wrong restroom!'' She had the same reaction each time too. She said she'd grab her boobs and say ''I don't f***ing think so!''  So this is something that happens to cisgender women who don't fit the feminine standards of society too.

So the law should clearly reflect whether you are deemed "passable" or not by whoever else is in the bathroom at the time.
/extreme sarc

One time I was in the ladies' room in a long line after a concert in Vegas, when I heard a drunk woman scream, "There's a f***ing MAN in here!  Get the f*** out before I call the cops!"  At first I thought she might be referring to me.  Nope.  The person in question was clearly FAAB.  I got in and out without a second look. 

Quote from: Eva Marie on June 11, 2014, 03:31:46 PM
And a lot of those 59% probably have already used the bathroom in the presence of a transgender person and did not know it.

Exactly. 99% of the time I have never been questioned going into the women's room. The one time it happened, it wasn't even done directly. It was done by some 16 year old brat chick that was sitting at a table with 3 or 4 other girls. She was promptly silenced by her peers.

Quote from: CandiceSkirvin on June 11, 2014, 04:06:19 PM
That's exactly the problem some very trans-ignorant legislators are going to get into if they push for trans* people to use restroom of their birth sex. There are tons (or from what I've seen most) of trans* people who 'pass'. And I absolutely hate that term. It's an insane idea that enforces the same lame gender stereotypes that have been alive and well for far too long. Anyways, what happens to them? Where do they go? Where do intersex people go? Legislating restroom use is an insane idea. And the Americans who say that they think trans* people should use the restroom of their birth sex are ignorant and need to be educated.

I'm no fan of it either.  It implies the opposite- "fail".  That becomes too ugly and potentially damaging for my taste.

Maybe what we do is put a group of assorted cis and trans people in front of legislators and poll them on whom should be using which bathroom based on looks alone and illustrate how farcical this can be. 

If all bathrooms were single occupant family-friendly facilities that accommodated both genders the problem would go away for everyone...

Unfortunately nothing surprises me.  this is just another example of just how far society needs to go before understanding and accepting us

Aisla

Polls like this do not gauge people's opinion. They have to do more with the wording of the question.

If the question were, "do you want males, including transgender males, to be using a woman's restroom", I'm sure they would have gotten a vastly different response.

People, THIS IS OUR FAULT.

We're assuming people are born knowing about and understanding our bathroom issues. We assume people have thought about it. We assume that if they haven't, they're narrow minded bigots who can't be reached.

Well, they don't, they haven't, and they aren't.

People haven't thought about this because WE'VE SAT ON OUR BUTTS AND REFUSED TO EDUCATE THEM. Newsflash: People aren't going to understand our bathroom issues unless we MAKE THEM UNDERSTAND. We need to explain the situation. If people don't understand that it doesn't make sense for us to use the bathroom associated with our birth sex, it's because WE HAVEN'T GIVEN THEM THE FACTS!

Many people have never knowingly met a trans person who passes. Their image of trans women are the caricatures they've seen in the media and the occasional non-passing woman they might have noticed in public. Their image of transguys is probably nil, since they generally pass and aren't portrayed in media at all.

And I guarantee that the cis person is very, very rare who has sat down and asked himself/herself what it must be like to be living as woman everywhere for every purpose but be forced to use the men's restroom (or vice versa).

Alright, I'll get down from my soap box before I fall off and break something.

Quote from: Olivia P on June 11, 2014, 03:17:41 PM

A poll has found that 59% of Americans think that trans people should have to use the bathroom associated with their birth gender.

Yeah, good way to get raped too. I can see it now, MtF trans-woman reluctantly walks into men's restroom, men are in there, oh boy...

Stupid poll, ignorant people. They all think Transsexual is some sort of perversive thing, like we're dressing up like women and going into women's restrooms to get off. Thankfully ever since the very first time I had ever used the female's bathroom I've never once had any issues, no odd or fearful looks, no confrontations. Other than my boss at my last job asking me if it would be a problem, it wasn't of coarse.

Quote from: Virginia on June 11, 2014, 10:37:40 PM
If all bathrooms were single occupant family-friendly facilities that accommodated both genders the problem would go away for everyone...

Totally would fix all problems. Only real issue, it costs money to reconfigure them all.

At my job we have two bathrooms, each single toilet one person only, one is labeled for men an the other for women, but both are exactly the same inside and I've seen both men and women use the opposite labeled one when they had to go, heck I've done it myself, because there's no difference to them, one person at a time only and the doors lock, so no big deal, no problems.

The article is worded misleadingly. 56% of Americans? Polled 1,016 people? That should be "56% of Americans surveyed." That is a rather small sample to represent such a large population.

Single-user unisex bathrooms are ideal, it would be great to have more of them, but they are not as space and cost efficient as multi-user bathrooms. So it doesn't seem likely multi-stalls will be entirely replaced any time soon, if ever. It'd be a good start to at least have one single-user unisex bathroom where public facilities are expected. Would help pee-shy folks too.

Quote from: blink on June 12, 2014, 08:46:53 AM
It'd be a good start to at least have one single-user unisex bathroom where public facilities are expected. Would help pee-shy folks too.

I believe we are seeing more and more of this. Likely driven by society's growing awareness of accommodating all the people with special bathroom needs (our growing elderly population, folk with disabilities, people with complex hygiene issues and single parents folk with children) than gender concerns.

It was also a poll about trans *students.* People lose their ability to think reasonably when it comes to kids; I've seen even people who DO argue for trans adults in the right bathrooms doing the "little kids might be misled by their parents/change their minds and do we want boys flashing their penises in the little girls' room" crap when the question of schools comes up.

Quote from: CandiceSkirvin on June 11, 2014, 04:28:11 PM
That sounds like a fabulous idea, really. I would love to be a part of that group of cis women. Then I'd look at one of those old white guys staring at my boobs and say, ''hey, guess what. I was born with CAIS. I have testes, a vagina, and XY chromosomes. My birth sex is male genotype and female phenotype with female on my birth certificate! What restroom should I use?'' I would love to see the reaction and be part of the group that proves that looks and birth sex aren't everything.

Candice you totally rock! I snorted my tea so hard my dog was found in the next county over!  I would love to be there to hear their answer, well, that or call 911 for the heart attack they would have. 

Quote from: Jenna Marie on June 12, 2014, 11:29:49 AM
It was also a poll about trans *students.* People lose their ability to think reasonably when it comes to kids; I've seen even people who DO argue for trans adults in the right bathrooms doing the "little kids might be misled by their parents/change their minds and do we want boys flashing their penises in the little girls' room" crap when the question of schools comes up.

Yeah, rightly or wrongly, I think this may have influenced the poll. Sexual assault on teen girls by male peers is high. And people may be reacting to that. I think it's the 'possible male predator in the restroom with our girls' thing that scares people. They just don't understand it's not like that. Basically, those with loud voices on this are appealing to the very real fear of girls being sexually assaulted.

Education is needed, definitely. If they understood that many trans girls fear the same thing in boys' rooms and have experienced sexual assault themselves in many cases, maybe they would get it.

FA

You may be right, as education often helps.  However prejudice and fear runs deep.  Binary thinking is deeply entrenched.   Introducing change is seen as introducing risk.  The status quo is therefore vigorously protected often even in the face of compelling argument or logic.

Aisla

It's a misleading title, only 59% out of however many they asked said this. It doesn't account for "A Majority of Americans" it only accounts for A Majority of the Americans that where selected for the poll.

People are insanely obsessed with penises, who has them, and how dangerous they are.  As if the mere presence of a penis is dangerous.  Absolutely ridiculous.

I find it sad that most of these laws target trans women who don't pass easily (yes I hate that term, too).  But yes, cisgender women get stares, too.  I was early in transition and not passing, at least not at home in my liberal state.  I had just (as in a few days) started T.  I had cut my hair but not even totally butch.  I took my daughter on an adventure to a more conservative area.  It was that time of the month, and I headed to the restroom.  Oh the stares I got by everyone in there.  I was like, really??  Like women with short hair were an anomaly or something.  I can't even say I looked butch in the least.  But nobody confronted me.  If they had I might have had to flash them a used tampon or something, LOL.

People don't believe they use the restrooms with trans people all the time and don't know it. Because we're not in there flashing our junk.  We're doing business and leaving.  And maybe what will have legislators change their minds about these stupid bathroom bills is a couple of busloads of us descending on them and having us use the restrooms en mass  according to our 'birth gender' and have them really see how ridiculous it is.  From the Buck Angel types to the funky bois in the ladies room, and Laverne Cox beauties and regular gals in the men's room.  Might be educational.

In reply to those questioning the accuracy of this kind of survey....
The sad thing is, that assuming a normal +/-5 variance this is probably the opinion held by most Americans.
But don't despair as irrational and uneducated as these people are, the reality is most of those people
a). Aren't smart enough to write, let alone vote... and most of them don't
b). Have no real power over the law
considering the law is mostly in our favour...mostly... it is going to take a lot of work
by the religious right to make any changes on 'bathroom policy' (Giggles to self over how ridiculous that sounds)
so long as we have substantial 'bathroom' support (over 30%!!!!!) than we don't have that much to worry about.

*Also point to note:
All things considered I would have expected that percentage to be much higher, especially given the amount of coverage bathroom use has had in the mainstream media.... and Fox.
I kinda see those numbers as promising... although I see I'm in the minority <3

The self-nominated toilet fraud squad gets no say in anything. From power-tripping school teachers to the ancient order of habitually-mystified McDonalds workers, if anyone is going to try and force me into the ladies' room... Well, they will look remarkably foolish for directing an obvious male to use the women's room when all the women in there start lining up to complain about an obvious male lurking in the ladies' room like an irritated box jellyfish that wants to prod them with his manic death-tentacles from under the stall door while making frenzied Andy Serkis noises.  (I suppose they would just assume.) 
See how the management likes that charming development.