http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/the-transgender-locker-room/article/2002577The Transgender Locker Room
Coming soon to a school near you.
Jun 06, 2016 | By Steven E. Rhoads
The debate over transgender individuals and public facilities yields more heat than light. The Washington Post Outlook section thought it was providing perspective with a recent lighthearted spread on the long history of battles over public bathrooms. Not a word was said about the more problematic space: locker rooms.
Media discussions of the North Carolina law requiring use of accommodations consistent with the sex on one’s birth certificate rarely mention that in many states one can alter one's birth certificate after sex reassignment surgery. Of course, those who have undergone hormonal and surgical treatment to make their bodies more congruent with their gender identity cause less commotion in locker rooms appropriate to their identity. But many transgender people do not want to "transition" fully or at all. I sympathize with people who feel their biological sex is not who they are, but shouldn't we feel sympathy also for people traumatized by the sight of nude bodies that certainly appear to be in the wrong locker room? At one YMCA, a woman abused as a child told the Seattle Times that being seen in the shower by a transgender woman who hadn't surgically transitioned would reproduce the trauma she endured when her abuser enjoyed watching her in the shower.
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