Donald trump has rescinded the protection transgender children had in schools, which allowed them to use the restroom of their gender identity. Their gender identity may be different to the gender they were assigned at birth and is who they live and identify with this on a daily basis. It is now up to the states to decide.
Caitlyn Jenner has recently spoken out against President Trump, calling his new policies disastrous. She feels that he has betrayed the LGBTQ community, as he had stated in the past that he would continue to allow students to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity.
Who is in danger?
One of the conservative talking points of opposing this measure is that allowing students (or Transgender people in general) to use a restroom that does not correspond to what they were assigned at birth can 'up' the instances of child molestation. It can also, they say, make other people uncomfortable. But how true is this assertion that transgender people are more apt to molest children in the bathroom? Most of them simply want to go in and relieve themselves without being in their own danger.
According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 70 percent of transgender individuals have reported being harassed, assaulted or even denied entrance to the bathroom of their assigned gender.
In some cases, depending on the visibility of their transition, they have even been harassed in the bathroom of their choice. 63 percent of respondents to the survey mentioned above say they have experienced extreme acts of discrimination.
The Imaginary Predator
But how many children have been molested by a man pretending to be a transgender woman just to get into the bathroom?
Current reports cannot find a single instance of this. In fact, most children are molested or abused by people close to them, and only a small percentage of children who had been molested (2 percent according to Pat's Place) were even abused by a stranger. Zero of them had been abused by someone posing as a member of the opposite sex in order to gain access to them.
In this instance, we must ask ourselves who really is at stake here?
