Straight, Not Narrow

I share my thoughts about politics, public schools, and religious beliefs on my blogs.  Only controversial topic left to discuss is sex.  So in keeping with all the headlines I’ll throw in my two cents, which I know is really cheap when it comes to sex.  I do this in the context of the ongoing hurrah over bathroom use by transgender people. 

Disclosures first.  I am a flaming heterosexual.  I am a male, have always felt like a male and have no problem with that sexual identity.  I celebrate the differences in males and females, but am only curious about, intrigued by, dumbfounded by and aroused by females.  I am straight.

One of the most unique attributes of our democracy is our willingness to limit the power of the majority to protect minority rights.  Many nations vote, have legislatures, have presidents, etc., but few protect minority rights.  Since Jefferson we have been concerned about the possibility of the “tyranny of the majority”.  Nations in the mid-east, Asia, South America and Africa as well as elsewhere demand allegiance to the majority perspective.  Failure to do so can result in death.  Not here.

We sometimes get the majority/minority protection issue backwards, but not always.  We are approaching an understanding of bullying in that the person who decides whether bullying actually occurred is the victim, not the perp.  If a kid feels bullied, by definition, he or she is bullied.  In that case the minority perspective is protected because the parents of bullied kids absolutely demand protection of their kids.  The same is true for racial perspective.  We recognize that a member of a racial minority who feels discrimination is much more important to hear than the perspective of the discriminator.  That makes sense.  Most of the bullies and bigots I know fiercely claim they are not bullies or bigots.  And those bullies and bigots tend to be in the majority.

But in other areas we continue to seek to protect the majority perspective at the expense of the minority.  Homosexuality is one of those areas.  The number of homosexuals is vastly smaller than the number of heterosexuals, and yet we seem hell-bent to persecute that minority and protect the majority.  We now allow private sector organizations to discriminate against homosexuals and we see governmental entities prohibiting same-sex marriage.  We are doing this backwards.  It is always the minority that needs protection, not the majority.  (I feel that very strongly as a progressive thinker in Texas!)

The North Carolina bathroom bill requires people to use the bathroom of their gender, not their gender identity.  If your birth certificate says you are a male, you must use the men’s’ restroom, and vice-versa.  I hear the fears that male predators may dress like women and enter female bathrooms to molest women or girls.  I have not heard, though it may be out there, that females may dress like males to enter male bathrooms to molest males, but if our society were truly equal we would hear such tales.  I have seen the videos of local vigilantes and police removing people from bathrooms if they do not pass the appearance test, i.e. a female whose clothes and hair may appear too masculine to the likes of these bigots.  They are women, but they are not “feminine” women.  Worse, or at least as confirmation of the worst, it appears that only male officers and vigilantes are out there enforcing this archaic practice.  Clearly, women need protecting and only men can do so.  What a terrible message!  And I wonder, good Lord, how far have we now moved backward on the path to enlightenment. 

Twelve states have had anti-discrimination laws regarding bathrooms and transgender people for multiple years.  Those states allow people to choose the restroom that is consistent with their sexual identity.  In none of those states where people choose their restroom based on sexual identity rather than sexual equipment has any sexual assault been recorded by transgender people.  None.  Risk of such is a myth, perpetrated by transphobic and homophobic people.  What has been reported is that boys are sexually assaulted by males in the men’s’ restroom.  Rarely are girls sexually assaulted by women in the women’s’ restroom, though there are cases where men hid in women’s restrooms and assaulted girls.  But sexual assault in public restrooms is rare.  It is much more likely that a child sexual assault victim, or an adult for that matter, will be sexually assaulted by someone they know at their own home or the home of someone they know.

So, why write such a law if it addresses a non-issue?  It is popular to promote fear, especially by those who fear folks with different sexual orientations than what those folks believe to be the “right” sexual identity.  This is no different than Jim Crow laws where it was clear that Anglos had rights that Blacks did not have and that segregation was sanctioned by law.  Fortunately, our laws have moved beyond that, though many Anglos have not.  The same folks write laws prohibiting certain sexual practices of consenting adults.  Amazing.  If we now have bathroom police will we soon have bedroom police?

Homosexuality and transgender people have always been a small portion of the general population.  If such human beings make you nervous or angry or fearful, then do some research other than listening to Fox News.  In America we protect the rights of the minorities against the tendency of the majority to enforce their perspective.  Such protection of minorities is evidence of a truly free nation.  The North Carolina bathroom bill is un-American.

I am straight, but I am not narrow.