TO THE EDITOR:
This weekend, vulgar, transphobic messages surfaced in response to an unnamed student’s comments regarding House Bill 2. The messages were allegedly written by UNC College Republicans’ Facebook page. Whether the vitriol was fabricated or not, it exemplifies hateful rhetoric many use to demonize transgender individuals.
As former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, sunlight is the best disinfectant. House Bill 2 did not create these ideas, but lends legitimacy to people’s personal prejudices and unwarranted fears regarding trans individuals.
The political message House Bill 2 underscores is simply the latest attack on a politically powerless minority for political gain.
The public needs to be better educated about this minority class of people. In 2011, UCLA’s Williams Institute found that 0.3 percent of the U.S. strongly feel that their gender identity does not match their biological sex. The Williams Institute also found trans individuals are in greater danger when bathroom-use is strictly segregated.
The governor calls the bathroom provision “common sense,” but the law actually relies on common misconceptions.
Let’s be clear. The number of trans people arrested for sexual misconduct in a bathroom is zero. It hasn’t happened. Comparatively, the number of GOP politicians who have been arrested for sexual misconduct in a bathroom is at least three.
We need laws that are logical and fair, allowing people to use the bathrooms of their gender identity. This state needs socially inclusive, rather than divisive, legislation. We are all North Carolinians. We all have value. That value should not be diminished by the hateful prejudices of a few.
Abe Johns
