Tempting Transphobia
A man walks into the men’s room to pee, but gets beaten up and almost cracks his head on the asphalt. Why? He doesn’t have a penis.
Why is it important to activate for rights at all?
Some people would say that the anonymous transgender person I interviewed today can not pee where they feel comfortable just because their gender does not match up with their biological sex.
People say a man with a vagina can’t pee in the men’s room if that’s where he’s comfortable, and that the women do not want men in their restroom. Well if the majority of society had their way, they would be sending men into the ladies room.
There are 892 hate crime organizations active in america each day.
Q: Have you ever done anything against transphobia?
A: “Yes. I was part of a GSA in my school and we went through the process of creating an all-gender wash room.”
Q: What was the process to meet this goal?
A: “I personally think it was too long. All we wanted was to pee. But at least we got it. I know lots of schools do not. We had to go through the school board and the principal. We had to file many documents and make many school wide statements. One of my best friends did not even pee at school for six months because he was not comfortable in the washroom they said he had to go in. I am just happy I have never been beaten up because of how I identify, but that does not make me any less angry about (transphobia).”
Many GSA’s (gay straight alliance) around the country have been installing all-gender restrooms, but not enough.
It hurts me to see a young man with all his constitutional rights being thrown out of a public restroom where he would go to handle his anxiety for a few moments and handle private matters with other members of his same gender. Say you’re biologically a woman, and you go into the women’s restroom but just because you look some way they throw you out? Would you still think that transgender people shouldn’t use the bathrooms they want?
Kids get bullied constantly and hate crimes are being performed as long as any one person does not stand against transphobia. We have to stand together! How would you feel if your child got bullied for being who they are? When I have kids someday I want them to come home from school with a smile on their face, not bruises. Do not make someone else see their child with bruises on their face. Stand with me! Protect each other! Make a movement in your community for an all-gender restroom!
Transphobia is the sin. You don’t have to agree with what I’m doing, the only thing I ask is for you to please let these people poop! Everybody poops.
This story is part of a new Storytelling for Changemakers program for Changemaker Schools activated in partnership with Ashoka’s Youth Venture and Start Empathy.
Individual views expressed in this blog are from individual students at YIHS and not representative of Ashoka, Start Empathy, or Youth Venture.
