i dream of being possible

So. The whole bathroom thing is a huge topic again bc of what happened in Houston. And, sadly,...

So. The whole bathroom thing is a huge topic again bc of what happened in Houston. And, sadly, I”m still seeing people reference the notion that there have been zero incidents of trans woman assaulting cis women in restrooms. Yes… most of the pieces I see from the US will say that there have been no incidents in the US.

But as I”ve pointed out, there has been one in Canada. And this incident has been used to influence policy, as well as give radfems and other conservatives fuel for their bathroom panic.

While I get that the problem I raise in that post, the one of free loaders or bad actors, really isn”t an easy ethical problem to address, we are going to need to if we ever want to get past this state of panic.

It simply isn”t meaningful to keep asserting that there have been no incidents. Sure, there still haven”t been because Hambrook wasn”t actually a trans woman, but there is no difference to the opposition. Moreover, we cannot actually guarantee that there will be no incidents in the future. Insofar as we can truthfully assert that, up until now, there have been no incidents, this has no bearing on the future. Unless we are really trying to pretend that no trans woman has ever sexually assaulted anyone. Which. Um…. yeah.

Like. This is what so many people don”t get. Whether or not anything has happened is irrelevant, because it could happen in the future. This possibility is the source of the panic. And, yes, it is entirely irrational which is why aiming for ‘rational” counter-arguments is largely pointless.

And, no, I still don”t have a solution for this. I”m still not sure there is a solution. But ignoring this problem will, at the very least, not make it go away. Failing to address this in some more substantive and relevant fashion will mean that we”ll keep losing on this ground.