Scared of trans people in bathrooms? We’re the ones who should be afraid of you
why have toilets become such a moral panic around trans people, when we are the ones who suffer the most in them?Before I came out, I was considered ‘too gay’ and the boys would harass me, berate me or refuse to share a locker room with me at school because I could ‘perve’ on them.After I came out as trans at the age of 17, things changed overnight, and now I was suddenly a ‘threat’ to women — despite being a victim of constant harassment growing up, sexual violence and abuse myself.Never at any point during debates about toilets or gendered spaces do people wonder what it’s like for a trans person to navigate them — and the reality of violence and harassment trans people face in those situations.While it’s not really an issue for me today and hasn’t been for over a decade, I would forgive you for thinking trans people literally just showed up out of nowhere and started raiding gendered spaces at an alarming rate.The public discourse surrounding this topic has become incredibly toxic and hostile.
Trans people have been quietly using gendered spaces openly for decades without it ever proving to be a real issue. If we truly were the dangerous criminals and sexual predators some claim we are, we’d have a much larger issue at hand.But the reality is the exact opposite of what people believe, as trans people are at heightened risk of abuse and violence in society.
In the UK, hate crimes against trans people have risen dramatically in the past few years.Why are we made out to be the oppressors when we’re clearly the ones who need better support?Research shows that trans people get harassed in gendered spaces at alarming rates.
