This Exchange Between Teenagers Will Restore Your Faith In Their Generation, And Make You Question The One In Charge.
By Carrie Gray
When something is being debated back and forth by politicians it can sometimes be hard to remember who their decision is really going to affect the most. Often it is those without a voice. This exchange between two 16-year-old girls from South Carolina is a prime example of how many of the victims of the controversial “bathroom bill” are not being considered by politicians who claim to be looking out for their best interests.
In a move of compassion and empathy that many in our country can learn from, one girl stepped up to make her friend feel more comfortable about one of the basic parts of everyday life. Even if it is something that should never have been necessary in the first place. When did something as common as using the restroom turn into some sort of action movie, requiring lookouts to be posted to make sure everything is clear and safe?
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That’s the case for some students in South Carolina in the wake of a controversial decision to suspend a trans student (who was born female but has since transitioned to male) for using the boy’s room despite them fitting the male gender image so well many are not aware the student was not born male. The school is actually suggesting that a 12th grade student who, by all aspects looks and behaves male, should be using the girl’s bathroom despite the obvious discomfort that would place on both the student and any female student using the bathroom at the same time.
It’s hard to turn on the news lately without seeing something about the multiple “bathroom bills” being debated and discussed nationwide. In case you have been living under a rock, the legislation called the “bathroom bill” is one that defines access to public restrooms by transgender people. It essentially says a person must use the facility that is specifically for the gender they were assigned at birth. This includes both pre, and post, operation transgender people. Meaning someone like Laverne Cox, who was assigned as male at birth but now looks like anything but a man, would be forced to use the men’s room.
If that doesn’t show how ridiculous, or impossible to enforce, this bill is it’s hard to imagine what will. It is not as though public restrooms will start having posted personal standing by, ready to check any and all genital that pass through the door. Right?
Despite the innate absurdity of this bill many states are giving it serious thought. So far sixteen states have considered legislation that would restrict access to multiuser restrooms, locker rooms, and other sex-segregated facilities on the basis of a definition of sex or gender consistent with sex assigned at birth or “biological sex.” Most of those states have also considered bills that would limit a transgender student’s rights while at school.
As if high school wasn’t stressful enough already.