As GOP Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz discusses the safety of women in restrooms, for a moment it finally begins to seem like the discussion of sexual assault is finally shifting from “how women can prevent being raped” to “how we can prevent men from raping”. That is, of course, until you realize that women’s safety in bathrooms has never really been part of a political agenda before. Who goes into what bathroom has been completely self-regulated. There’s never been someone at the door, checking to make sure that women can be safe in their restroom. It just hasn’t been something that the general mainstream has cared about.
Until transwomen started going into female restrooms.

When Senator Ted Cruz thinks he can close the widening gap between him and Donald Trump by attacking Trump’s stance that “anyone should be able to use which restroom they feel appropriate”,  it shows just has transphobic politics really are. Ultimately, it just displays a disbelief in Trans people as a whole.

Senator Cruz comes out with his 2 young daughters dressed in matching pink dresses, and talks about how “grown men” who “are feeling like females at the moment” should not be able to enter the “little girl’s restroom.”

I’m going to stay as pragmatic as possible. I’m not going to talk about uppity philosophical concepts. I’m going to stay real.

Does sexual violence occur in female’s restrooms? Yes. It hasn’t really been much of a political hot topic until it started to involve LBGTQ* rights. Have men taken advantage of dressing like females to gain access to vulnerable situations? If we are being realistic, probably, at some point. But there is very little evidence of it, and states that have allowed Trans people in the restroom of their choice haven’t increased in sexual attack rates. But it’s wrong to disregard any rape of anyone, for any reason whatsoever.

But the problem with legislation such as North Carolina’s new law which prohibits the use of public restrooms by transgender people, is that transgender people are not the one’s committing these acts. Transgender people are not the one’s raping women.

It’s straight male perverts. Not transwomen.

Discriminating against transpeople in public facilities is putting the punishment for the acts of a patriarchal system on the shoulders of an incredibly marginalized group. It’s punishing the wrong people, and letting the privileged class get away with it. That is wrong. It’s a misdiagnosed problem, that ultimately, like most rape discourse, takes the blame away from men for rape, but now, instead of putting it on females, it’s being put on transgender women.

And the fact that bathrooms completely self-regulated now is extremely important. Senator Cruz, it’s a slap in the face to feminism to pretend like you’ve always cared about women being safe in restrooms. At the point where anyone can basically walk in and out, to ensure that transgender people don’t come into our “cis only restrooms,” the logistical ability to actually enforce that law would be a nightmare. What, you’re going to check everyone’s genitals before you let them pee?

Another important point to note, that is completely excluded from any kind of discussion on this topic, is transmales. No one is worrying about the sexual violence towards an individual who still may be anatomically female going into the men’s restrooms. “They chose to go in  there”? And then it’s back to victim blaming.
The concluding factor of these points of analysis, that restrooms have been self-regulated until transpeople wanted to be part of the scene. That transpeople are being punished for rapes they do not commit, enforcing the policy would be nearly impossible, and that there’s still no worry about anatomically female transmen. It proves that the discrimination of transpeople is still either overlooked, or even just accepted. Even to the point, where what it comes down to, is do transpeople really exist, o

Like most Americans, the idea of being born in a body that does not match my soul seems alien to me. I don’t understand it. But that’s because I am not transgender. I don’t know what it’s like to be afraid of leaving my house expressing myself in the way I feel most comfortable, because, unlike transpeople, no one is going to hurt me, not employ me, deny me housing and insurance and medical care, for expressing myself like a female. That is privilege. Regardless of whether or not you believe that transpeople can really be “transpeople” you cannot deny the facts. Physical violence. Chronic Depression. Isolation. 57% of transgender people who are alienated from their family attempt suicide.

I have had the opportunity of being friends with a couple transgendered people. People who didn’t want to live the way they were born and were hated by their peers and disowned from their families. Bullied. Used in the slurs of discourse from the “cool kids”. People who finally were able to happy once they accepted who they are.

Regardless of whether you believe someone can be born in the wrong body or  not, I think we can all come together to realize that you can’t stop sexual assaults on women by blaming transgender people in restrooms. It’s completely false and fundamentally misdiagnoses the problem. I’m sorry Senator Cruz, you don’t fool me. Let’s keep the pressure to end rape and sexual assault where it belongs, and work to end discrimination in this great country.