The GOP and Bathrooms

I have been wondering lately about the GOP and bathrooms, since Republicans seem hell-bent on passing laws deciding who can use what bathroom.

See, Republicans feel that transgender people go into bathrooms to sexually assault regular folks instead of going into bathrooms, or locker rooms, to pee or change clothes, or whatever, even though statistics prove that there has never been one trans person arrested for sexual misconduct in a public bathroom anywhere, ever.

But they use fear; the fear that cisgender — a person whose self-identity conforms with the gender that corresponds to their biological sex, i.e. not transgender — men will don women’s clothes to use a women’s bathroom to assault or ogle women.

Um, okay, well, then wouldn’t that make for a law saying that cisgender men cannot use public restrooms? I mean, why you gotta punish trans folks for the perverted nature of some cisgender men?

That’s point one: punish the perverts who would sexually assault women in bathrooms, not the trans people who just want to pee.

Point two: punish the Republicans who use bathrooms, because, as I said, while there has not been one arrest of a trans person doing anything other than peeing in a bathroom, we have seen a few cases of Republicans using bathrooms for, well, other things:

In 1981, Mississippi Congressman Jon Hinson was arrested for engaging in oral sex with a male staffer in the House of Representatives bathroom and yet no law was passed in Mississippi to keep Hinson from using the men’s room.

In 2007, Idaho Republican Larry Craig was arrested in the restroom of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer and, again, no GOP lawmakers tried to keep Craig from his Wide Stance.

Also in 2007, Florida state Representative Bob Allen was arrested after he agreed to give an undercover police officer $20 for oral sex in the men’s room of a public park; no laws passed there either.

So, is the problem trans people using the bathroom, or is the problem Republicans using the bathroom?

And if it’s the GOP doing the nasty in the boy’s room, why are Republican legislators trying to single out and punish transgender people for using bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity … in states like Kansas, North Carolina and South Dakota; other states such as Arizona, Florida, Texas and Kentucky were also looking at enacting so-called ‘bathroom bills,’ targeted at transgender people.

Let’s hear from one of those fear-mongering Republicans, Florida State Representative Frank Artiles who sponsored the Single Sex Public Facilities bill:

“While I understand there are transgender people who want to use bathrooms however they want to feel, that is irrelevant to me.”

In other words, he doesn’t care that a trans person has to pee because he’s uncomfortable, which kinda makes me wonder if he’d be fine sharing a men’s room with Larry Craig, Bob Allen or Jon Hinson.

And when Frank Artiles was asked to name a case, one case, any case, where a trans person had tried anything funny in the bathroom, he could not cite one single example … because there are none.

Look, it’s fear, plain and simple, and it’s how the GOP operates; it’s lies, and, again, it’s how the GOP operates, but, given the way things have played out, we should not be afraid of a trans person in the bathroom, but we should be terrified of having a Republican in the next stall.

Just sayin’.

Oh, and here are just a few people who, according to the new law in North Carolina, need to  rethink where they can pee ...

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