Thursday, April 14, 2016

North Carolina’s Bathroom Law is Not Restricting Access Nor is it Discriminatory

Sometimes, America seems like it’s turning itself upside down. The only thing that often keeps me from buying a house in the woods and disconnecting altogether is faith that this country, as one nation under God, still has the opportunity to right the disastrous course we’re on. This is why the media spin on the North Carolina bathroom law is tolerable. Supporters are simply being misled.

The media, politicians, and now even celebrities are spinning this whole debacle in a way that makes it seem like people are being restricted, that they’re being discriminated against based upon their gender. Here’s the thing: gender has always been (until recently) and should always be defined as a physiological trait. It’s not a choice. It’s not an identity determined by whatever internal or external forces drive a person to select rather than acknowledge their gender. Men are men. Women are women. It’s based upon anatomy, not choice.

An article proclaiming Ted Cruz’s backing of the controversial law started immediately spinning the narrative in the first sentence.

Republican presidential candidate and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said he supports the ability of North Carolina lawmakers to pass a law restricting bathroom access for gay and transgender people.

No. That’s blatantly false. In those last eight words, the NBC article butchers everything about this law. First, there is no restriction of access. It doesn’t matter whether a person is gay or straight, transgendered or not. This law gives equal rights to everyone to use the bathroom. Second, it is not targeting gay and transgendered people. It’s targeting everyone. Men should use the men’s room and women should use the lady’s room. When preference is placed as the deciding factor of which bathroom a person uses, there’s really no need to have a men’s room and a lady’s room. When safety, anatomy, and common sense are the deciding factors, people with male organs should use the bathroom designed for them and people with female organs should use the bathroom that suits them.

This is NOT an attack against the LBGTQ community. If a man wants to be gay, this law doesn’t prevent that. If he wants to use the bathroom, this law doesn’t prevent that. If he feels uncomfortable using the bathroom around other males, he has an issue that should be addressed. However, addressing that issue by allowing his discomfort to force other’s discomfort is more discriminatory than this law.

Here’s a scenario that, as a father of girls, I can see happening. The father sends his little girl to the restroom. While waiting for her, he sees a man go in after he. The man identifies as a woman so the law allows that. The father doesn’t, so now he must decide: did he just watch a harmless transgendered man or a heterosexual pervert go into a restroom with his daughter? Unfortunately, he can’t find out because he’s a heterosexual male that identifies as male, so entering the bathroom would break the law. That shouldn’t be a choice that any parent should be forced to make.

What Americans choose to do in private or in public is their business as long as it doesn’t affect others. North Carolina is not being obtuse. The law is a sensible one.



via Soshable http://ift.tt/1W0NC07

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