CAMRY DEAN
Staff Writer
Sometimes, the best way to get a point across is to make use of the words of someone else.
James Baldwin, a black American writer and social critic once said, “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and in denial of my humanity and right to exist.”
The week before spring break, Democracy 101 continued with a presentation by Jeffry Iovannone, coordinator of the Women and Gender Studies program.
On March 7, Iovannone opened his presentation, “What is the real purpose of ‘Bathroom Bills?,” with the famous Baldwin quote as a gateway into the discussion surrounding the recent controversy of transgender individuals using the public bathrooms correlating to the gender they identify with.
Under the Obama administration, federal nondiscriminatory laws were set in place that allowed students in schools that receive federal funding to use the bathroom that corresponded with their gender identity without facing punishment from their school.
Title IX, a law that protects individuals from being discriminated against on the basis of sex, gender or sexual orientation in public schools, included transgender students under Obama.
On Feb. 22, these laws were rescinded by President Donald Trump.
On the campaign trail in April of last year and in response to North Carolina’s notorious bathroom bill, Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act or House Bill 2, Trump said that transgender people should be able to use the bathroom they feel most comfortable using, including the one in Trump Tower.
In 2016, Charlotte, North Carolina, decided that transgender individuals were free to use the bathroom that they felt most comfortable using. In response to this decision, Pat McCrory, the 74th Governor of North Carolina, signed a bill that forbid single cities to establish their own anti-discrimination laws, and forced transgender people to use the bathroom of the sex they were assigned at birth.
Trump soon walked back on his stance when he signed to repeal Obama’s laws, which had been blocked by a Texas judge since August 2016.
Under Trump, the decision will be left up to the states and the schools to decide their own policies, which worries LGBTQ equality groups and individuals.
According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, 77 percent of transgender students experience some sort of harassment at school. In terms of verbal harassment, 54 percent of K-12 students have experienced it, while 24 percent have experienced physical harassment. Thirteen percent of students have been sexually assaulted.
As of right now, protection from discrimination by sexual orientation or gender identity/expression isn’t guaranteed in every state.
“Trans people don’t have the same rights and legal protections in all 50 states,” Iovannone said. “Because of this, they face unique legal challenges, especially when we’re talking about things like changing your gender marker on identity documents [or] access to healthcare. Are there employment protections for identity? And of course, bathroom access.”
One of the arguments in favor of these bathroom bills is that, by allowing trans people to use the bathroom that correlated with their gender identity, it would create a major public safety issue.
When Charlotte passed legislation to allow trans people to use the bathroom they felt comfortable with, McCrory said allowing this made women feel unsafe and opened the door for anyone to enter the women’s bathroom. McCrory also said it was “inappropriate for male genitalia to be in female spaces.”
This year, Texas introduced Senate Bill 6, or the Texas Privacy Act.
“This bill is interesting because it proposes to ban transgender women from the women’s bathroom but not transgender men from using the men’s bathroom,” Iovannone said. “The Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick, explained this by saying, ‘Men can take care of themselves.’”
Patrick also said that by passing SB 6, it will prevent “sexual predators like those who exploit the internet” from legally entering women’s bathroom.
Not only does this bill contain sexist language and paint women as weak, but Iovannone explained that it also seems to build on the idea of the “bathroom predator” and describes transgender individuals as the aggressors instead of the victims.
“We currently have 17 states that allow people to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity, and how many instances in these states have we had of someone claiming that law, using it to harass someone in a women’s bathroom?” Iovannone asked. “Zero. There have been no cases of that happening.
“Secondly, it promotes false narratives about sexual assault that actually make it harder for us to combat sexual assault,” said Iovannone, because more often than not, perpetrators in sexual assault are people the victim knows personally.
Iovannone, as well as others, believes that this is not only an attack on transgender rights, but an attack on their right to exist in public spaces.
As one of the most vulnerable and marginalized communities, the suicide rate of transgender individuals is nine times the national average at 40 percent. Forty-seven percent of trans people have been sexually assaulted in their lifetime, and 30 percent of people were fired or denied promotion and were mistreated in the workplace.
According to Iovannone and many other activists, using the bathroom while in public is one of the most basic necessities of a human and to deny an individual of that is to deny them the right to exist in public.
“Essentially what we’re talking about with these laws that are restricting bathroom usage, one of the things that we are debating is people’s very humanity,” Iovannone said. “That’s at the core of this issue.”
Democracy 101 is a program on campus that has hosted political discussions on varying topics throughout the semester.
Held in the Garden at Reed Library, students, faculty and community members are encouraged to attend these informal presentations and participate in a discussion.
Past discussions include “Is Putin a war criminal?,” presented by John Staples of the History Department, “Do public schools matter?,” by Robert Dahlgren, Chair of Curriculum and Instruction and “Is there a limit to presidential power?,” presented by Jonathan Chausovsky, professor of Politics and International Affairs.
The next presentation will be on Tuesday, March 28. Jessie Norris, professor of criminal justice, will present,
“Is Dylan Roof a terrorist?’ at 2 p.m. in the Garden at Reed Library.