It’s Education

Those of you who saw my interview on television last week saw how I ended the interview. The show’s host asked me when is needed to be done now and I answered education.

Transgender Panic Isn’t Hate—It’s Ignorance
Yes, Virginia, transgender is a real thing—and it’s not the same as cross-dressing, lifestyle choice, whim, or personal preference.
The Daily Beast
By Jay Michaelson
May 23, 2016

Rodney Cavness, superintendent of a Texas school district, became famous last week for saying that the White House’s guidance letter on transgender kids and school bathrooms was “going straight to the shredder.”

The response from right and left was predictable, and so this week, Cavness complained on Fox News that “I’ve been called everything you can be called this week… hateful, bigoted… it is simply not like that.”

He’s right. The problem isn’t hate; it’s ignorance. In fact, in Cavness’s five-minute interview, four key misconceptions about this whole non-issue were laid bare for anyone who cared to pay attention.

There is a thin line between ignorance and bigotry. There is a difference between willing to learn and not wanting to learn and that is what makes it bigotry. Also there are those who know the facts and choose to ignore them and make up lies because of political gain.

The article goes on to say,

First, the fair and balanced Fox News anchor said the White House was demanding that schools “let transgender kids use any bathroom they want.”

False, false, false. In fact, so false, so idiotically and completely false, that it makes those of us watching this debate wonder whether these people actually believe this stuff, or whether they’re just saying it to scare folks.

The other argument that they use against us is that this is about states’rights.

That’s true, but the responsibility of enforcing the Civil Rights Act is put on the federal government. This is not a case of government overreach. The White House letter was intended to put schools and other institutions on notice that they are violating Title IX if they don’t accommodate trans kids. Period. That’s exactly the purview of Title IX, and exactly why it exists in the first place.

Lastly the author points out that this is not about “safety” but rather,

This is where people like me get suspicious, because there isn’t really a safety issue here at all. There are no cases of trans women assaulting cisgender women in restrooms. And there’s no way to read the White House letter (or non-discrimination laws like Charlotte’s) as requiring unisex bathrooms, or boys in the girls’ room, or any of the other frightening prospects raised by conservative fear-mongers. (What is it with these people? Why are they always so afraid? Remember when they tried to terrify us all about Ebola?

What these politics are saying is we are going to punish the trans community for acts of others. We must educate people that we are not the problem, the problem is with those who are using us for their own political gains.