We are in the year 2016 and by now most people have become very focused on being accepting and respectful to every person of every color, shape, size, gender, and everything in between. That respect and acceptance is being specifically aimed at the LGBTQ community. One specific thing people are focused on is transgender people and their bathroom habits. Accommodations are beginning to be made to make transgender feel more comfortable about using the restroom of the gender that they identify with. Some people agree with these accommodations and others do not and then there are those who think the situation is more than making accommodations and laws.

The accommodations being made are those such as the administration requiring schools to allow students and employees to use the bathroom of the gender that they identify with. Another ruling took place last year by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commision that the sex discrimination law that prohibits discrimination against transgender people also requires employers to allow employees to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with.

And although love is spreading and most people don’t even see transgender people using the bathroom of the gender they identify with as something to think twice about, there are still those who are strongly opposed to the idea of allowing transgender people to use the bathroom consistent with their gender identity. In North Carolina, a law was passed that restricted transgender bathroom use and made sure to stop local governments from creating their own anti-discrimination policies. The opposition of allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice stems from the fear that sexual predators will take advantage of that ability. North Carolina’s law was defended with a statement by Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, “If our action in keeping men out of women’s bathrooms and showers protected the life of just one child or one woman from being molested or assaulted, it was worth it.”

Some argue that the change we need to see to give these people the respect they deserve should not happen through laws that control people but rather through changing a culture around these people that has lost its morality and spirituality. The people that argue this see the situation being handled in all the wrong ways. The issue of the situation should not be about sexual predators that are in no way related to transgender people because that is not what transgender people everywhere and the LGBTQ community are fighting for. They are fighting for acceptance and that should not be looked over by the idea that allowing transgender people to choose their own bathroom means directly allowing predators access to their prey.

The bathroom issue becomes controversial because it is seen as a fight between protecting two different groups of people; transgender people, or everyone else. Everyone else, including people that are survivors of sexual assault and do not want to feel fear that when a transgender person comes into the bathroom it is just a sexual predator ready to attack. And although that fear is very real and very valid in a world full of dangerous people, the feelings and what transgender people go through in their everyday lives has to be taken into account as well. There is fear on both ends of the spectrum. Transgender people live in fear everyday that someone who does not agree with their identity with harm them just because of who they are as a person. Both sides fear harmful situations everyday in their lives.

I think the first step in taking this situation head on would be to try to understand how parties from each side of the argument feel about the situation. Everyone is going to have a different opinion on the situation. We must put ourselves in the shoes of everyone involved. Although we can try to understand what others go through we never fully will so the next step would be accepting that we all live different lives and we all have struggles of our own to conquer. The beauty of the world is in that no one person is just like another person.

Another solution to the problem would be to make another bathroom for anyone who is comfortable with everything. Although this solution would not be the best because it is still not solving the problem of being not being accepting of their way of life it would help make change start to happen. It would make transgender people feel safe using the bathroom and it would show acceptance by the people who are not transgender who chose to use this bathroom.

Solving this problem is not going to happen over night. It will take time to see improvement but the time to begin is now.