If you are anything like me and don’t pay much attention to politics you may not have heard that the speaker of the house, Mike Johnson, made an announcement on November 20th, 2024, that there will be a ban on biological males who identify as transgender women from using any female locker rooms or restrooms. He added that “All single sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms are reserved for individuals of that biological sex.” Thus disallowing any non biological male or female to enter a restroom if they identify as the opposite sex. He then made a point to state that each member’s office has its own private restroom as well as there being unisex restrooms available throughout the Capitol. His reasoning behind this change is that biological women deserve spaces exclusively dedicated to them.
As I previously stated, I don’t pay much attention to politics but knew after hearing this news that it would be perfect to write about. In my personal opinion, I completely agree with this. This is not me saying that I want anyone to feel left out, or to not have the comfortability to identify with how they feel. I agree with this because after reading about how there are unisex bathrooms available as well as member’s offices having their own private bathrooms, I see nothing wrong with it. In fact, I think that should be the widespread policy. I have felt like the best way to be able to account for everyone, was to have three bathrooms, a male, female, and unisex bathroom. This way nobody is left out or feeling uncomfortable when they are trying to use the restroom. I don’t have much of an opinion either way about anyone that decides to identify as someone else. I was raised, and have always had the mindset that people are people. Regardless of their race, gender, religion or political beliefs. So as someone that just wants people to be able to be happy, this “ban” really stood out to me because it is just keeping womens spaces, as women’s spaces, and mens spaces, as mens spaces.
This was such a strong topic for me to be able to write about for two reasons. The first being that I have wondered where this world that we live in is going to end up when I am having children that reach school age and how different it is going to be by then. I want my children to grow up in a world that isn’t overcome by issues with gendered bathrooms, and for it to just be normal that maybe there are some kids that use a different bathroom because that makes them feel more comfortable. It’s always been my whole life that anyone that expresses themselves in a different way is called names, or looked at weird. This is not the world that I want my children to grow up in. I want everyone to be able to be friends with everyone else, and while that is not really realistic, I think that these restrooms becoming more normal in day to day life would help start that process. The second reason being about safety. My girlfriend recently used the bathroom while we were at a rest stop. When she walked out of her stall there was a man walking in. She quickly reacted and said this was the women’s restroom to his response of it is anyone’s bathroom nowadays. When she came out of the bathroom I could tell that she was frightened and unsettled. As I stated in my first paragraph and will state again, biological women deserve spaces exclusively dedicated to them. No woman should have to fear using a bathroom in public.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 