Bathrooms and Bigots

I wanted to continue my thoughts from The Fallacy of an Equality Compromise and get a little more specific now that the arguments against transgender bathroom use have become more solid.

First, let's start with some of the opposition arguments that I have heard. The most common by far is that people are worried about the safety of bathrooms without strict gender separation. More specifically, people are worried about the safety of women if "men" can enter female bathrooms. (I used quotations around men because transgender women are not men.) The second, more bigoted opposition is that allowing transgender people to use whatever restroom they identify with "legitimizes" a lifestyle choice that goes against some religious teachings.

The first argument seems legitimate but I would disagree wholeheartedly for the following reasons.
First, no one has made sexual assault inside a bathroom legal. If we believe that punishments are prohibitive, as many opponents of bathroom ordinances do, then why would having all people of the same gender, whether chosen or biological, increase the assault rate? I argue that it wouldn't. Assault still carries the same punishment, and therefore still has the same prohibitive effect regardless of where the crime occurs.

Second, trans-gender people that have completely transitioned to their chosen gender have used the bathroom of their choosing for years now. It was not forbidden until recently, and for the most part you can't outright identify a transgender person from their appearance so they can freely do whatever they want. These bathroom ordinances are "fixing" a problem that doesn't exist. There has been no increase in sexual assaults since transgender men and women have been using their respective bathrooms, in fact both rape and sexual assaults have declined markedly in the last few decades (U.S. Department of Justice. National Crime Victimization Survey. 1993-2013).

So, if there is no increased danger from transgender men and women using whatever bathroom they want, why are we enacting discriminatory laws that mitigate this danger?

The rest of the arguments against the bathroom ordinances are all religious in nature. They vary from opposition to "legitimizing transgender lifestyle choices" to "'God is being eroded, eclipsed, liquidated' (Cardinal Robert Sarah) in reference to homosexual and transgender equality laws". I cannot understand how giving human beings the right to live the lives they want with no deleterious effect on anyone else can be wrong. We have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as well as the freedom of and from religion in this country. We are not a christian nation even if a majority of the population is. We have a secular government that is separate from religion, or should be according to the constitution. Religious arguments should hold no sway in this environment as legitimate means to discriminate against non-traditional gender identities or sexual attractions.

While I cannot abide restricting transgender access to bathroom facilities, I find that locker room situations are much more complex and require more nuanced policy than bathrooms, and I would be remiss if I didn't cover the subject. The distinction between the two is the access to privacy. Privacy is common to bathrooms, but much less common in locker rooms. In any public restroom structures exist to maintain privacy during urination and defecation. However, locker rooms seldom have private changing areas and this could lead to unwanted exposure from both parties. I would say that I have nothing against transgender persons using either locker room and would only encourage the use of private changing stalls if the persons genitalia do not yet match their identity.

I think these bathroom laws are a sham that serve only to bring attention to a non-issue. Transgender people have, and will continue to use the restroom that suits them and it hasn't been an issue up till now. The arguments against equality are facades designed to rouse a religious political base.