The Truth About Bathrooms

How many times have you heard the conservatives make the claim that if trans people are allowed to use the bathroom of our gender identity that it would be an open invitation for rapists. How many times have you seen news media label non-discrimination bills as “bathroom bills?”

There is an article in Media Matters that discredit those lies,

15 Experts Debunk Right-Wing Transgender Bathroom Myth
Experts in 12 states -- including law enforcement officials, government employees, and advocates for victims of sexual assault -- have debunked the right-wing myth that sexual predators will exploit transgender non-discrimination laws to sneak into women's restrooms, calling the myth baseless and "beyond specious."
March 20, 2014
By Luke Brinker & Carlos Maza

Media Outlets Have Promoted "Urban Myth" About Restroom Sexual Assault In Trans-Inclusive Jurisdictions. According to Gay Star News' Jane Fae, transphobic bathroom myths have been promoted by news outlets that fail to fact-check unsubstantiated stories about alleged sexual assaults:
[…]
Fox News Has Promoted Harassment Fears About Transgender Access To Restrooms. Fox News has repeatedly invoked fears of sexual assault and misbehavior in restrooms to attack equal access to public accommodations for transgender people, including a fake story about a transgender student harassing females in her school's restroom. [Equality Matters, 6/5/13, 2/27/13, 8/14/13, 10/15/13]

Conservative Media Outlets Have Promoted Bogus Bathroom Stories. Numerous conservative media outlets, including The Daily Caller, WND, and the Media Research Center, have similarly promoted the myth that sexual predators will exploit trans-inclusive restrooms to prey upon women. [Equality Matters, 8/19/13, 8/22/13, 2/3/14]

The article goes on to list state by state letters from state agencies saying that there been no one arrested for using the non-discrimination laws as a pretext to rape, Connecticut’s CHRO reported that,

State Commission On Human Rights: "Unaware Of Any Sexual Assault." In an email to Media Matters, Jim O'Neill, legislative liaison and spokesman for the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights in Opportunities, reported no problems as a result of the state's non-discrimination law:

I am unaware of any sexual assault as the result of the CT gender identity or expression law.  I'm pretty sure it would have come to our attention. [Email exchange, 3/6/14]

When we were trying to pass Connecticut non-discrimination law we had access to many of those letter which we used to counter the conservative claims that the law would give rapists a green light to women’s bathrooms.

The right wing knows that there never has been a sexual assault because of the non-discrimiantion laws but they still go ahead and use bathrooms to create fear.