# The loophole in transgender bathroom rights **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 24, 2017, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-loophole-in-transgender-bathroom-rights/780610 "2017-02-24T04:06:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 5
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-loophole-in-transgender-bathroom-rights/780610/5 "2017-02-24T05:24:37Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > I am 100% in favor of allowing anyone to use the bathroom that most closely aligns with how they identify their gender. I believe that transgender people pose virtually no risk to members of the sex with which they identify. That is, you are not going to have transgender men who identify as women exposing themselves to or assaulting young girls in the bathroom (which seems to be the nightmare scenario that opponents are worried about). > > This leaves a loophole that could be exploited by those with nefarious purpose. It seems that this could allow a man to simply claim he identifies as a woman (maybe he even dresses like a woman) and enters the women’s bathroom. He may then assault someone, gawk at women, or just get some sort of satisfaction knowing that there’s a woman in the next stall. > > My mother has a friend who was with a female friend in a restaurant or bar (this was maybe 30-35 years ago, so I don’t remember the details). There was a very tall woman who looked pretty masculine who went into the ladies’ room. These two, with insatiable curiosity, followed this person in. The person went into a stall, and a couple of minutes later, one of these woman got into the next stall and stepped up onto the toilet to look over the partition. This was unspeakably rude but what she saw was a man with a “men’s magazine” in one hand (your assumption is correct about what was in the other). I do not know what followed, whether police were called, etc., etc. I do not know if this person was transgender, transvestite, or simply trying to sneak into the ladies’ room, but if the latter this scenario could be repeated under more permissive bathroom policies. > > I am not saying this loophole should prevent bathroom rights, but it is a problem. > > If you support transgender bathroom rights, how do you respond to this scenario? After checking the date on this thread…you didn’t come up with this, it’s literally the only argument the people who are opposed to all of this have. People that have no problem about where anyone one else uses the bathroom have plenty of arguments for it, both opinion and fact based. People that don’t like it use this one, over and over and over again. Do a google image search for ‘target bathroom meme’ and you’ll find no shortage of pictures of your ‘loophole’. Anyways, my stupid answer to that stupid loophole is that if you don’t want [this person](https://d1jn4vzj53eli5.cloudfront.net/mc/ngillespie/2016_05/transbathroommeme.jpg?h=259&w=300) sharing a bathroom with your daughter, that means that you have no problem with [this person](http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/buck-angel-subject-of-documentary-attends-hbo-documentary-film-the-picture-id624075418?s=594x594) sharing a bathroom with your daughter, right? (FTR, the second picture, Buck Angel, is a transgender man, he was born a woman and would be forced to use the ladies room) IOW, you can’t have it both ways…unless (as I assume the real motivator is) you’d rather all these people just used the bathroom at home and stayed out of sight and out of mind. And, for the record, it’s always been and always will be illegal to go into the bathroom and do something nefarious and if someone really wanted to, there was never anything stopping them from doing it 20 years ago that changed now. I don’t think there’s going to be any real problems going forward other than maybe a few people trying to make a point, such as the people that make those memes. And @CWG, all the ‘you’ statements in this post aren’t directed at you, just the people that use this loophole as a reason for supporting bathroom bills. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-loophole-in-transgender-bathroom-rights/780610)._