This "trans-bathroom" issue shows how desperate conservatives are for an issue to hold onto power

In a very sad way, the controversy over the "trans-bathroom" issue is also a valuable teaching moment.   It's sad, because vulnerable people are being hurt.   But it is valuable in educating the reasonable public to the falseness of the issue (and hopefully deterring other states from adopting such laws);  and it is exposing the desperation of conservatives to hold on to power.    They've lost the court battles on "gay marriage" and on "religious freedom" to discriminte against gay customers in pubic businesses -- so now they're refocusing their energy and hope pm the trans bathroom issue.

But, again, rather than coming up with something of substance, they have grasped at a false issue.   Their arguments are not about the fact of trans people's existence;  instead, they conflate trans people with the real problem of sexual predators.   There is no actual connection; but, when you're desperate for a galvanizing issue, the factual details don't matter, as long as the manufactured link gets people riled up.

It is already illegal for men to dress as women and go into ladies rooms and molest women or little girls.   This has nothing whatsoever to do with trans people -- except that, in the minds of these politicians and zealots, desperate to hang onto some semblance of power, they seem to think that, if we become used to more masculine-looking people dressed as women going into women's restrooms, we might be less on guard against predators taking advantage of that.

But, honestly, the likelihood of that is miniscule.   Even conservative columnist Mona Charen wrote this in Monday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

"Some opponents of permitting transgender individuals to use the bathroom of their subjective feelings rather than their biology point to the risk of sexual assault.  That seems a negligible risk.   Hard to imagine rapists donning skirts the better to grab women in a ladies' room surrounded by female witnesses."

Of course, Charen then goes on to completely destroy her credibility when she denies and trivializes the reality of the trans experience, claiming instead that they are simply confused or mentally ill and that their whims are being indulged by a complicit psychiatric profession.

I speak as a psychiatrist and a psychoanalyst myself in saying that is so wrong.  Charen is very badly misinformed and is responding either out of political ideology or blind prejudice.   Further, her lack of empathy is simply appalling.

Nevertheless, I cite her article in order to show that even someone who thinks the whole trans phenomenon is bogus can still see the illogic of the conservatives in these idiotic laws.

Liberals have introduced a bill to repeal the North Carolina disaster, which Gov. McCrory's spokesman defended, saying:  “The governor respectfully disagrees with the political left’s national agenda to mandate changes to basic, common-sense restroom norms.”   Common sense?   There is no sense, common or otherwise, in requiring transwomen (Caitlyn Jenner ?) to use the men's room and transmen using the ladies' room.   Hasn't anyone sat these people down and explained what "trans" means?   Is it ignorance -- or a shameless scam on the people of their state?   These same legislators claimed "voter fraud" as an excuse to pass voter ID laws to suppress Democratic-inclined votes.   The scam is pretty much the same:  push a "solution" to a nonexistent "problem" -- all for political power.

Ralph

PS:   Let's remember that our Georgia legislators did almost exactly the same thing (and will try again next year).  We'd be having this same conversation about our own state -- except that our governor vetoed the bill.   Though I have sharply criticized Gov. Nathan Deal for many things, including his anti-LGBT stances, he deserves our thanks for this veto, even if his motive was in large part protecting the state's reputation as a business-friendly environment.