World Politics
What Israel-Palestine can teach us about trans people.
Israel-Palestine can teach us about the bathroom issue. One group’s rights should not lead to the damage other’s.
Conflicts used to be simple, there was more often a clear, universal right and wrong; an oppressor and an oppressed; a minority and a majority. WW2: Nazis were oppressing Jews, the American civil war: the South was oppressing African Americans, every crisis as a part of decolonization: colonists were oppressing the colonised. My point is, much more often than not, majorities subdued minorities, however, this well-worn trope has recently been challenged.
Israel’s brutal actions in the Palestinian territories have been of varying degrees in the past 75 years, but, lately it has escalated to the likes of an ethnic cleansing, mostly in Gaza. Similar to the United States post 9–11, it has used the October 7th attacks as justifications for some of the most brutal actions of the 21st century. That’s not to say October 7th or 9–11 were anything less than a tragedy and its perpetrators anything less than terrorists, but there is an equal opposite reaction and then there’s what’s going on in Gaza. There is retribution and revenge, then there’s the US invasion of Iraq. I will be focusing mostly on the Israeli invasion of Gaza today but I find the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 to be a strikingly similar example of a slighlty different intensity.
A common defence among supporters for Israel’s invasion is that they are removing terrorists or preventing anti-semetism. One hundred years ago, preventing anti-semetism was seen as a traditionally liberal policy, but with time it has since migrated, as most issues do, more towards the centre. A common defence among supporters for mainly the restriction of trans women in women’s restrooms is that they are protecting women’s rights. One hundred years ago, protecting women’s rights and preventing sexual assault was seen as a more liberal policy but with time it has since migrated, as most issues do, towards the center… Do you see where I am going?
I would like to say that it is 100% okay to feel uncomfortable in a bathroom or single sex space because someone appearing to be of the opposite sex is there. But there is often an in-between period which trans people occupy where they look a lot like a man and a lot like a woman. When people are in the bathroom they may feel scared to see someone that appears to be a threat and naturally assume the worst, hence their brain amplifies the trans person’s feminine or masculine side meaning they appear to be a threat in both bathrooms. It is also a legitimate fact that Hamas is anti-semetist and a terrorist group responsible for countless atrocities.
But trans people won’t go away. The bathroom issue needs to be solved and it is the fault of both sides, liberal and conservative that it hasn’t been. Each group needs to accept that A: Trans people won’t go away and ‘making them’ won’t fix the problem. B: Trans people don’t love going into bathrooms either especially when it is such a hot button issue. C: There is no evidence to suggest trans people are more likely to be predators or sex offenders, in fact in an NBC study of US high schools, they were more likely to be assaulted. D: Some bad people have and unfortunately will use loopholes in legislation surrounding trans rights to hurt people and everything in our power needs to be done to prevent it, and finally E: The other side just wants to pee in peace, just like you do.
The incidents of people using loopholes in current laws by claiming to be trans are few and far between, they do exist and are no less horrible but do exist. These incidents existing is a problem but there are a lot of problems which makes this one seem miniscule in comparison, like: global domestic violence or sexual assault rates. In fact Alexa Priddy, director of the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault said opponents of protections were only trying to “create fear”. A spokesperson for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries said there had been “zero allegations” of bathroom sexual assault stemming from trans protection laws. Finally, the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission said existing laws: “ha[ve] not resulted in increase[d] sexual assault”.
But if there’s one thing that Israel-Palestine can teach us about trans people is that protecting one group (whether true or baseless political claims) is no excuse to oppress and attempt to eliminate another group. Women and Jewish people are still oppressed today, I know far less and have no experience of the latter but it is clear and progressions in one group’s rights should not lead to the regressions in another’s.
Perhaps it is a sign of a developed society that the oppressed are becoming the oppressors. Perhaps it is rather a sign of social progress and in fact through all of history the oppressed have slowly become the oppressors but we just haven’t noticed… What do you think? I am genuinely curious and would love to hear about it in the responses, whether you violently disagree or adamantly concur.
If you liked this article you may like my other articles on Israel-Palestine: How Genocide Goes Unnoticed Thanks To Natural Human Empathy or Dear Palestine Im Sorry. If you liked or were at least intrigued by my writing consider following or see more stories of mine below. All support is appreciated.
