Alright, so there’s this 7 year old boy who claims he is a girl in Edmonton. His parents want him to be allowed to use the girls’ washroom at the Catholic school he/she attends. There are so many problems with this story.
1) This is a Catholic school. According to Catholic teaching, if your gender identity does not correspond with your physical sex, then there is a mental disorder, but you are in fact your sex. In other words, a person with male genitalia is a male, regardless of their particular mental state. Therefore, if this person is attending a Catholic school, it only makes sense he would be held to their moral standards. If he does not like this (well if his family doesn’t), he should go elsewhere.
2) The reason bathrooms are segregated by sex is because of the physical characteristics of the person, not any form of mental state. It’s actually irrelevant. Urinals, for example, are designed for male body parts. Regardless of if the particular male believes he is a male mentally is irrelevant to the question of the genitalia involved. Some might argue that separate bathrooms are unnecessary and that’s an argument that can be had. But the reason there are separate bathrooms in the first place is the difference in body parts.
To a large degree, much of the reason behind separate bathrooms is safety. Women would not feel safe doing something as intimate as using the bathroom with men around in close proximity. Bathrooms are a rather private area, they are certainly not public like other areas. Often people are alone in a bathroom and there are no cameras around. In the past, anyone seeing a man entering a woman’s bathroom would immediately be concerned. But how can anyone tell anymore? You can’t just “notice” someone’s mental state.
Women are right to feel worried about this. Allowing men to enter a women’s washroom without concern will do nothing but increase the incidence of sexual assault. It could prove a goldmine for men who expose themselves. No cameras, probably no other men, and private areas to “prepare” themselves such as individual stalls. It’s pretty safe to say that “legitimate” cases of transsexualism will go undetected as I’m pretty sure trans people will not be required to wear a visible identifier. I went off on a bit of a tangent, but it’s simply to explain that bathrooms are designed based on sex not gender.
3) The kid was offered the ability to use a non-gender-specific bathroom. This seems like a more than reasonable solution to this problem. Of course, this is not enough for some people. Some Catholic school “trustee” is apparently disagreeing with this whole thing. First of all, how did she even get a job in a Catholic school – clearly she cares nothing about Catholic teaching. Also, the parents are not satisfied either.
4) The school trustee, Patricia Grell, said she’s worried about the child’s mental wellbeing. Is she aware that a huge percentage of transgendered people actually commit suicide. I don’t have very much internet access here, but what I did find was that two-thirds of transgender youth have attempted suicide, according to CBC. I doubt attempted suicide is good for mental health or an indicator of it.
5) One of the many contradictions of the modern feminist movement can be seen at play here. On the one hand, feminists insist that there are no specific gender roles, that men and women should act however they want. A woman can be a construction worker and a boy can play with Barbies. Yet somehow, when a boy does in fact demonstrate any tendency toward a traditionally girl-dominated activity, he’s immediately deemed transsexual, called a girl and referred to as “she”.
Catholic schools must have the ability to act as they wish, not forced to bow to societal pressures. If someone wants to attend a school that does not conform to Catholic standards, they can feel free. Secondly, only the feelings and attitudes of this child’s parents are being considered. What about girls who don’t want to share a bathroom with a boy? Where are their rights? Thirdly, this child is only 7. Just because he enjoys doing traditionally girl activities does not make him a girl. The fact that the parents are pushing this agenda is unconscionable. With the enormous risk that comes from being transgendered, they should give this child plenty of time to see if this is a phase, not propel him down a path to misery.
Get over it.
ReplyDelete"Is she aware that a huge percentage of transgendered people actually commit suicide"
Transgendered people commit suicide because people like you tell them that they are mentally ill. Doesn't sound very compassionate to me. I don't think Jesus ever talked like this...