To the Editor:
I read a letter to the editor last week (April 20, “Transgender in the ladies’ room”) about keeping transgender people out of public women’s rooms. I found myself feeling somewhat sad, angry, disappointed, and outright dumbfounded at the ignorant bigotry driven by an unfounded fear. Worse yet were the online comments.
If one would care to educate themselves, they would find zero cases — not a single one — in the United States of a truly transgender person (going either way) who sexually assaulted someone in a public women’s or men’s restroom. On the other hand, there are plenty of cases of transgender people being assaulted.
I think bathroom laws, like those recently passed in the South, and letters to the editor like the one in last week’s MV Times, raise the fear levels and make assault on transgender persons more acceptable and more common.
Imagine, guys, you go into the men’s room with your 12-year-old son, and as you stand at the urinal, Caitlyn Jenner is putting her makeup on 10 feet away. How would you explain that to your son? Or to yourself for that matter?
Also ladies, how would you explain to your 12-year-old daughter about that man who was born female, had hormone therapy, surgery, has a beard, is standing up to urinate, and by all accounts is a man, being in the women’s room because his birth certificate states he was born female?
Bathroom laws are ridiculous, divisive, and dangerous.
Don Keller
Vineyard Haven
