When I first heard about the story of Andraya Williams, a 22-year-old student at Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) in Charlotte, NC, I was instantly confused. A female security guard stopped Williams, who is a transgender woman, after she stepped out of a women’s restroom on the college campus and asked her sex. Williams says she was subsequently suspended from school for using the women’s bathroom. And CPCC authorities told her that she could only return if she agreed to only use the gender-neutral bathrooms. According to her attorney, Williams was told she would have to bring medical proof that she is female in order to use the women’s restrooms on campus. A spokesperson for the school, however, said Williams wasn’t actually suspended but was in trouble for not showing her ID to the security guard when prompted.
I definitely reject any and all comfort with being willfully ignorant, and I always strive to achieve a more inclusive mindset, but I couldn’t understand what Williams’ issue was. When I say I can’t understand what her problem is, I truly mean I can’t fathom it. This leaves me, and many other people, in a weird space, since we have many questions and concerns about issues affecting the transgender community and the community at large. However, most of us are either unaware of our ignorance or unsure of how to engage in non-inflammatory conversation. The reason there’s no outrage from most non-transgender people over Williams’ plight is because many women, especially those who commented on Clutch’s story, believe it’s dangerous or an invasion of privacy to have transgender women using a women’s restroom.
When I attended York University in the early 2000s, a despicable amount of sexual assaults occurred on the campus, and there was no system in place to make the campus safer for women, especially after dark. But if you go to York today, a decade later, you will see that there are many resources available to protect women during the day and night. The changes implemented on York’s campus were also put into place on many campuses all over North America because keeping women of all ages, races, and orientations safe and secure is priority number one. But, how exactly does a transgender woman fit into all of this?
On one hand, if Williams identifies as a woman, then society should respect her right to behave as a woman without invasive questioning. But, on the other hand, identifying as a woman does not make Williams genetically female, so some women could feel that their space is being violated by a person who is genetically, possibly physically, male. Women have been raped in bathrooms before, and their right to demand control over that sensitive public space is understandable. This all boils down to there needing to be a balance between the needs of the general student population and transgender students, or the needs of general society and transgender people.
Williams, like many transgender people, believes that her gender is nobody’s business but her own. But should that be an unquestionable right? I remember I once had a conversation with a woman, who is a trans-ally but isn’t transgender, about whether transgender people should have to reveal their orientation to people they are dating. Her position was they shouldn’t, while I completely believe they should. The concept that gender is nothing more than a social construct is an ideology that not everyone subscribes to. If you want to date a woman who was born female, that doesn’t make you a bigot, it just means you have your own set of requirements for your body. That is an example of the classic case of tug-of-war that exists on transgender issues. At what point does supporting the propagation of your rights, become trampling someone else’s? When women enter confined bathroom stalls, is it fair for them to know whether the person in the stall next to them was born a male or is identifying as a woman?
There are so many tough discussions that need to be had on transgender issues, and it’s definitely true that we, as a society, need to learn how to be more accepting of people we consider “different.” We will not get there through constant outrage, reflexive anger, and willful ignorance, but actually through learning and conversing. Whether it’s clarifying that demanding to know whether someone is pre/post-op is wrong, revealing that “tranny” is a slur, or debating whether transgender people should use gender-neutral bathrooms, it’s all the difficult yet necessary part of learning to accept and understand one another.
LAB
Lincoln Anthony Blades blogs daily on his site ThisIsYourConscience.com, he’s an author of the book “You’re Not A Victim, You’re A Volunteer” and a weekly contributor for UPTOWN Magazine. He can be reached via Twitter @lincolnablades and on Facebook at This Is Your Conscience.
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