Who’s afraid of the big bad cisgender adult male?

by Sara Ritsch
Op. Ed.

Right wing advocates and left wing protesters for North Carolina’s House Bill 2, the anti-trans bathroom law, are widely taking their opinions to their social media pages. The new law has incited the fear of a pedophile taking advantage of ‘their daughters’ while disguised as a transgender woman, and it has made its way across the internet.

But this perspective, in some cases, overlooks a glaring point:

It is not transgender people they must be afraid of. It is cisgender, straight males; it is rape culture, and it is something that has been overlooked for centuries.

Despite the fact that research shows there are no cases of a transgender person assaulting anyone in a bathroom, that trans people have commonly been using the bathrooms that align with their gender identity since the dawn of public restrooms and that homosexuality is not linked to pedophilia, protesters of any transgender protections are taking a stand against places like Target, who have opened their arms to the trans community.

According to the Dallas Observer, a Republican candidate for sheriff in a Texas town, Tracy Murphree, “promised he would ‘beat the hell out of a transgender person who tried to piss in a bathroom where [his] daughter was peeing.’”

This Denton County officer wrote in a Facebook post Friday that he would be the one to physically assault anyone in a bathroom, effectively establishing himself as a threat.

“All I can say is this: If my little girl is in a public women’s restroom and a man, regardless of how he may identify, goes into the bathroom, he will then identify as a John Doe until he wakes up in whatever hospital he may be taken to. Your identity does not trump my little girl’s safety. I identify as an overprotective father that loves his kids and would do anything to protect them.”

He then told the Observer, “I’m not afraid of transgenders. I’m afraid of who will take advantage of the rules to get close to kids.”

That’s exactly right, Murphree. You are afraid of men.

The ‘bathroom predator myth’ consists of the fear that LGBT people are comparable to pedophiles. “Facts about Homosexuality and Child Molestation” is a research project enacted by Prof. Gregory Herek of the University of California, Davis. His findings are as follows: “homosexual and bisexual men do not pose any special threat to children.”

His research continues, quoting a similar study: “Are homosexual adults in general sexually attracted to children and are preadolescent children at greater risk of molestation from homosexual adults than from heterosexual adults? There is no reason to believe so.

“The research to date all points to there being no significant relationship between a homosexual lifestyle and child molestation. There appears to be practically no reportage of sexual molestation of girls by lesbian adults, and the adult male who sexually molests young boys is not likely to be homosexual.”

Thus, the predator becomes the straight male. The fear lies in the masculinity, not the gender identity, nor the sexual orientation (two things that may or may not align anyway).

What a way to finally address rape culture.

The Gayly – 4/26/2016 @ 11:59 a.m. CDT