Transgender actress Laverne Cox, famous for her role as Sophia on the hit Netflix series "Orange is the New Black," appeared on MSNBC's "Hardball" to weigh in on Trump repealing protection for transgender students and their ability to use the Bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. She left Travis Weber, a member of the Family Research Council (a notoriously anti-LGBTQ organization) speechless when she questioned what bathroom she should be using.
What are they expecting?
It seems when conservatives argue about transgender individuals using their bathroom of choice, they are expecting to see a man in a dress.
However, many people who have transitioned live very convincingly as the opposite sex. In some cases, they have even undergone several surgeries to make them feel and look more like the gender they identify with. Most people, like Weber, would be totally jarred to see Cox make her way into the men's room, even though she was assigned male at birth.
Where should people go to the bathroom?
Travis Weber was left speechless when asked what bathroom Cox should use. Due to her feminine outward appearance, it is obvious he wouldn't be comfortable seeing her in the men's room. It is clear that Weber was not expecting to speak to someone who has fully transitioned and instead was expecting to see a transgender individual who looked much different from Cox.
It is thus unclear whether anti-LGBT activists feel that transgender individuals can use the bathroom of their choice only if they have reached a level at which society would deem their transition "convincing."
Weber, like many anti-LGBT activists, contests that allowing transgender individuals in the bathroom harms children, specifically females.
He stated on his "Hardball" segment that allowing a transgender person to use the bathroom of their choice might "harm a 14-year-old girl who is uncomfortable seeing male genitalia in the locker room."
Another common complaint and concern is that children may be molested by transgender individuals within public bathrooms, however, recent statistics point to the fact that thus far there is not a single reported instance of this happening.
Cox asked that Weber stray from reducing transgender individuals to their body parts, as many are in very different stages of transitioning and gender identity is not necessarily about genitalia.
