Transgender Traits

Here is an excerpt from an opinion piece from the Huffington Post with a different take on transgender issues.[i]

1. Transgender people are not ‘confused’ about their ‘sexual identity’

Being transgender has nothing to do with sexual identity ― it has to do with gender identity. Sexual identity is who you are sexually attracted to: men, women, both, neither, some combination of all of the above. Gender identity is how you identify: male, female, neither, both, some combination of all of the above.

2. Transgender people do not suffer from a psychiatric disorder 

While many transgender people are afflicted by gender dysphoria ― feeling emotional distress over the difference between the gender they are thought to be at birth and the gender they know themselves to be ― they are not mentally ill. 

3. Transgender people are not “disproportionately involved” in sex crimes

At least not in the way [some] claim. In fact, in the past 35 years, only one case of an alleged trans person attacking someone in a restroom has been reported anywhere in the entire world.  

4. Transgender people are the ones harassed and discriminated against in restrooms

The Williams Institute found that 70 percent of trans people have been “denied access, verbally harassed, or physically assaulted in public restrooms.” 

5. Transgender people face shockingly high levels of sexual abuse and assault

One in two transgender people are sexually assaulted or abused at some point in their lives. What’s more, 2016 was the deadliest year on record for transgender people with at least 24 trans people, most of them transgender people of color, murdered and many more deaths not reported.

6. Trans people using restrooms corresponding with their gender identity doesn’t  allow predators to gain access to those venues 

As Massachusetts State Rep. Paul Heroux explained in a blog on The Huffington Post, “If a predator or pervert tries to gain access to an opposite sex bathroom or locker room, that is already against the law. Furthermore, over 90% of assaults on children are done by someone the child knows. Only with extreme rareness is it someone who is using a restroom, and that is and will continue to be against the law.”

7. Transgender people just want to use a bathroom and leave ― just like everyone else. 

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[i] For the complete article, click here.