Transgender bathrooms - Mountain or molehill?

Of Mountains and Molehills

The View from the Middle

As if we don’t have enough serious issues in our country like crushing debt and declining wages, our politicians are constantly trying to create additional “wedge issues” to divide us.  These wedge issues are designed to turn friends into enemies in order to grab a few votes and get these creeps elected to some public office.  There are two problems with this approach.  First, these scumbags who will do anything to win an election often do win, and second, in the wake of these election fights they leave our country angry and fractured.  Let me give you a couple of examples.

Back in 2012, Sandra Fluke (remember her) entered the political stage and suggested that there was a crisis of access to birth control for women across the US.  Her solution was to make birth control free for every woman in America.  Many people, especially women, took her word that things were indeed critical, but we should have stepped back and considered her claim.  Was this a real emergency or just a “straw man” used to defeat conservatives?  Let’s look at the facts.

In her argument Sandra pointed out that 99% of women who wished to use birth control were, in fact, using it.  She used this factoid to show the broad use of contraceptives among American women today.  But, at the same time she exposed the fact that there was no “crisis” of access.  If more than 99% of women are using birth control as needed, where is the crisis?

Next, Ms. Fluke suggested that birth control should be free for all women, and if anyone disagreed with that position, we were denying contraception to women living in poverty.  Again, this was not the case.  I, for example, don’t want to buy Ms. Fluke’s birth control pills, or Chelsea Clinton’s or Alexandra Pelosi’s (Nancy Pelosi’s daughter), or any other woman who can afford to pay for it.  I do support, however, free birth control for those who can’t afford it, and there are over 15,000 clinics, health centers and hospitals around the country that provide it.

So this was a great example of a molehill that was made to sound like a mountain to divide us.  There really was no crisis of access to contraceptives, and no one was arguing against providing them to those who truly couldn’t afford them.  But this didn’t stop Ms. Fluke from offering her deception.

The latest molehill being elevated to mountain status is transgender access to public bathrooms.  First of all, we all must realize that only .3% of Americans are transgender.  That’s three tens of one percent.  For perspective, if you did a survey of 100 people you would probably find zero transgender persons in that group.  If you did another survey of 100 people, you would again probably find none.  If you did a third survey of 100 people, you might find one transgender person.  So, changing our public bathrooms across the country to accommodate this small group is the absolute definition of “the tail wagging the dog.”

In addition, where are the examples of transgender people being denied access to bathrooms in America today?  Where are the riots?  Where is the coverage by our crack lamestream media correspondents?  I’ve been to many restaurants and other public places in my long life, and I have never witnessed an issue.  Have you?  Be honest? 

The question that we should be asking is, “what are transgender people doing now to get access to public bathrooms?” because it seems to be working!! 

Did you know that there are more men in the US who are taller than 6 feet, 6 inches than there are transgender people? What if this group demanded that we change the heights of all of the doorways in our restaurants and other public buildings so that they won’t whack their heads?  This would be incredibly expensive for all those small businesses that would have to comply.  Why not just tell those incredibly tall people to duck their heads, like they have been doing forever?

As a country, we should be employing the same strategy with both of the issues mentioned above, and every other wedge issue our politicians dream up.  Virtually all women who want contraception are getting it, and those who need it for free are getting it for free.  The process is working.  We are also not experiencing massive restroom battles across the country.  Transgender people are somehow accessing bathrooms and fitting rooms right now without causing women or children or themselves any distress.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

I am neither a misogynist nor a transgenderphobe (if there is such a term).  I would never discriminate against either group and wish them all God’s speed as they travel though life.  I’m just a realist who tries to analyze both sides of every issue.  In these cases, action may make us feel fulfilled and proud, but it takes wisdom to recognize when our actions are either unnecessary or even harmful.