Protecting Privacy and Safety is Not About Transgender Individuals
Few people, if anyone, is or has been, concerned about violence or bad behavior from individuals who choose a transgender lifestyle. In general, transgender people have exercised their rights while respecting the rights of others. The concern is that, without this legislation, straight male perverts and predators will use the policy of “gender self-identification” to legally prey on women and children. Once the door is legally opened allowing transgender females access to the traditional women’s shower, it will not be possible to deny straight males the same access because access will be based on “gender” rather than “sex”. Since “gender” can only be determined by the individual, and can be changed at will, there will be no basis for denying anyone access to whatever facility they choose to enter.
The American culture and the foundational laws of our society are based on the individual’s right to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. But, key to a civil understanding of how this actually works is that one person’s rights ends where another person’s rights begin and there is a hierarchy to these rights. There are also basic laws of nature such as “cause and effect” and “choices have consequences” which exist whether anyone wants to accept them or not.
In a civil and decent society where the hierarchy of rights is understood and accepted, the issue of what shower, locker room or bathroom a person uses should be beyond any question. It is also an indisputable fact there are only two human sexes, male and female, which are determined at conception by chromosomes. Granted, on very rare occasions there are defective chromosomes that result in health issues, but they are extremely rare. No surgery, no amount of drugs or any combination of the two can change a person’s “sex” (chromosomes). A body can be mutilated with surgery, physiology manipulated, and the mind fooled by drugs but the “sex” cannot be changed.
It is necessary to comprehend the current definition of two key words (sex and gender) in order to have an understanding of this issue. Historically, the terms “gender” and “sex” were generally interchangeable. That is no longer the case. “Sex” is binary (male or female). It is established at conception and is determined medically before or at birth. “Gender” is a self-determined state of mind. A person’s “gender” is not fixed and can only be determined by the person. There is no physical definition of “gender”. No one can determine another person’s “gender” and “gender” is no longer limited to just male or female.
Since the beginning of recorded history there have been a very small percentage of the world’s population that have chosen a lifestyle that differs from what nature intended. While they certainly have the right to do so, they do not have the right to force others to give-up their right to safety and privacy to accommodate that choice. The right to choose a lifestyle is not in question. But, natural law makes it clear that all choices have consequences.
For as long as anyone can remember, society has also quietly accepted those rare exceptions where a male chooses to dress and live as a female and vice versa. Very rarely has there been any concern with a cross-dressing person using a bathroom consistent with their choice of outward appearance.
However, the recently escalating demand of parents requiring schools to allow their child unfettered access to showers, locker rooms and bathrooms of the opposite sex is causing the rights of the vast majority to be violated by a very small minority of people simply because of a choice in lifestyle.
The media and many people are disseminating false information about the Texas Legislature’s attempt to responsibly address this issue. It is difficult to discern whether that is because they have not read the bill, or, having read it, did not understand it, or, they are purposely misleading the public. It is shameful that most articles are so misleading that it would take a correction on each sentence to bring the article even close to the truth. In the 85th session I authored a similar bill and was a coauthor on SB 6 so I do have a good understanding of what the bill actually says and is intended to do.
The following are the ten most egregious issues misrepresented by those who are opposed to protecting the privacy and safety of women and children in showers, locker rooms and bathrooms.
1. The title “bathroom” bill is inaccurate. Using misleading titles to deceive people is a popular tactic with the left opposition to discredit and demean. The accurate title would be the “Women and Children's Safety and Privacy Protection Act” because that is exactly what the bill is intended to do.
2. The Texas bill is intended to protect, not harm, businesses. One of the main purposes of SB 6 is to prohibit municipalities from passing local laws that would require privately owned businesses to provide shower, locker, or bathroom configurations that are inconsistent with the private businesses' policy. Municipalities would not be able to implement laws that create a special class of protected people and force businesses to expend millions of dollars to meet those unique laws. And, conversely municipalities would not be able to prohibit a privately owned business from choosing to have all gender-neutral facilities. In other words, local governments would not be allowed to interfere with private businesses. The free market place would make that decision.
3. It actually has nothing to do with any concern about the behavior, good or bad of transgender-people. It has everything to do with straight-male predators who will take advantage of their newly created right to enter shower, locker and bathrooms where they could then legally perform their perversions on women and children. Because they (straight-male perverts) would then have a “right” to be there. It would no longer be illegal for them to expose themselves or view the females. Now before you say that would never happen, remember anyone can declare themselves any gender, they chose, at any time. Gender identity is self-identity. No one will have the authority to tell anyone that they are anything other than the gender they choose for themselves. And they can change that declaration, at will. Let that sink in for a minute. Once you understand that fact you will begin to understand why this bill is actually NOT about transgender-people which leads me to number four.
4. This bill is necessary and intended to protect the privacy and safety of the vast majority of women and children from straight male perverts. “Sex” is determined by physiology at birth. A person is either male or female. A person’s sex is determined by chromosomes which cannot be changed by any amount of drugs or surgery. “Gender” is a state of mind and is “self-identified”. In fact, only an individual has the authority to determine their own “gender” and a person may change their gender at will. (However, changing gender does not change one’s sex.) Thus, there will be no way to keep straight-male-perverts out of the female showers, locker rooms and bathrooms. What is considered perversion today (males exposing themselves to females and voyeurism) will become legally acceptable; a new norm.
5. This bill is needed to protect our children in public schools. Boys and girls in public schools should not be commingling in locker rooms and shower rooms. Again, since “gender” is self-identification, once a school adopts a policy to allow a “transgender person” access to showers, lockers and bathrooms with people of the opposite physical sex (remember sex is established at birth, gender is a choice) there will be no way to stop straight-males from entering the female facilities.
6. All of the predicted negative economic impacts are based on irrational assumptions and illogical projections. The Texas Association of Businesses (TAB) has been particularly aggressive in promoting false analysis projecting economic disasters for any state passing a law like SB 6. The time and money spent by TAB with the phony projections should be an embarrassment to their members. The TAB has been wrong at every turn. They gleefully told everyone that North Carolina would become an economic wasteland when their bill, which is very similar to the Texas bill, passed. It did not happen. North Carolina’s economic growth continues to be one of the best in the nation. Yes, some major sports events did relocate to other states but those events which took place away from North Carolina were economic disappointments in their alternate venue. The decision to relocate turned out to be a very bad one for the event promoters and teams. In fact, real economic data shows just the opposite of what TAB’s false reports predict.
7. The decision by the retailer, Target was a verifiable economic disaster. When Target adopted a policy of forcing women to accept an expectation of men having free access to their bathrooms, their stock and sales plummeted. Every honest poll taken shows overwhelming public support for keeping men out of women’s showers, locker room and bathrooms. This is not surprising since most estimates indicate that the transgender population is well below 1% of the population.
8. Women will lose 100 years of equality progress in sports. Competitive sports are divided into separate groups, men and women, for a very good reason. Without the use of drugs, there is a natural significant physical difference between a male and a female. Until approximately 100 years ago there were very few opportunities for women to compete in sporting events for two reasons. Very little money was allocated to women’s sports in schools and few women could match the physical performance of men. Today the money is available to support female sports but the natural physical difference remains imbalanced. Without the protection of this bill, if males, who declare themselves to be transgender females, are allowed to compete in traditional female sports then legitimate females will be pushed off the team and eventually female sports teams will be dominated by males who cannot perform to the level necessary to compete on the traditional male team but choose to declare themselves “female”. Women will be back to where they were 100 years ago; competing against males.
9. The large majority of the public supports protecting the privacy of women. The answer to your question as to why many major corporations are not more active in opposing SB 6 perhaps lies in the deteriorating patronage Target has experienced from its disregard for the very loud and clear public support for women's privacy and protection. Other corporations are slower to cast aside the time honored practice of protecting the privacy and safety of women and children by not allowing people of the male sex into facilities traditionally reserved for people of the female sex. Perhaps those major corporations are very savvy and respect the dynamics of the free market. Perhaps they recognize the economic impact of a policy that sacrifices the rights and safety of 99.9% of the population to appease .01%.
10. How many pieces of silver is your wife or daughter’s privacy and safety worth? Even if there were to be a negative economic impact of a bill like SB 6, what price would you being place on the safety and privacy of your wife or daughter? How much money is it worth? For how many pieces of silver would you sell them out?
Protecting the safety and privacy of women and children, upholds women's rights in Texas. It also honors every individual’s right to privacy and safety in society, and supports freedom of free market principles by all Texas business owners and operators.
There are some things for which there can be no price on their value. The privacy and safety of our women and children are at the top of that list.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB3hMGjm3fk
|
|
|
|
