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Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Culture War Toilet Battle

Looks like a man. Sounds like a man. Presents as a man. Claims to be a woman. Hangs out in women's room. Then the cops arrive...
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Below, a video that went up on Facebook on April 19. DO NOT WATCH THIS AT WORK. The language directed at the police is foul and abusive. But if you can handle cursing, you need to watch it. I’ll describe it below.

In the video, a very masculine-presenting teenager is asked by police to leave the women’s restroom. The person, who has a deep voice, says she’s a woman, and not going anywhere. She gets very aggressive: “I’m a f–king female. Do I have to tell you again?”

The police ask for her ID. She says she doesn’t have one.

“Then out!” says the cop. “You got no ID, then get out!”

Police forcibly remove her from the bathroom while her female companions curse them.

I saw the video on this FB page. Read the comments for an example of the unshirted rage of these people.

Now, this put-upon lesbian sounds like a male. She’s dressed like a male. She moves like a male. It is more than reasonable for the police to assume upon looking at her and listening to her that she’s a male. That’s why they asked her for ID. If you were one of those police officers, you would have done the same thing — and when the alleged lesbian got mouthy and refused to produce an ID, you would have removed her from the public toilet. Otherwise, you might have let a man stay in the women’s bathroom — a public toilet — making women who didn’t know this person was a lesbian very uncomfortable, and even make them feel unsafe.

And for that matter, how can we be sure that this person is a female, as she claims, and not a biological male who is feeling gender fluid that day, and identified as a woman … despite having a penis?

Of course this toilet is the Edmund Pettus Bridge of the SJWs.

I don’t know where this incident occurred, but let’s say it happened in a state that had a law giving people access to whichever toilet they wanted to use. If the alleged lesbian in this case had actually been a man who wanted to hang out in the women’s restroom, what grounds would uncomfortable females using that restroom have had for calling the police? And what grounds would the police have had for removing the male, or “male,” from the premises, as long as he/she wasn’t harassing people? If you’re a woman, would you feel comfortable using a restroom if a tall, big man — or someone who looked and sounded like a man — was hanging out there? Would you call the cops? Or would you stifle your concern, assuming that a) you must be some kind of bigot, or b) you don’t want to call the cops and then find out that that person has a right to be there, because even though that person might be a biological male, he identifies in that moment as a woman?

If you’re a cop, do you really want to risk a possible civil rights harassment complaint by getting involved in a mess like this?

This country is crazy. It is instructive to read that Facebook page, and to see how berserk so many of those on the cultural left are — as if the cops had behaved like stormtroopers instead of like reasonable people trying to protect the public safety.

UPDATE: Read what I actually wrote, people, before you comment. If this person really is a female, then of course she was in the correct bathroom. None of us know why the cops were called there. I presume because some women who had been using that bathroom thought there was a man standing in line. It’s a reasonable conclusion given how the person dressed, sounded, and presented. But assuming she is a female, how are the cops supposed to know this, absent her showing her ID? In any case, my point is not that she shouldn’t have been in this bathroom, but that if laws are passed giving people the right to use whichever gendered bathroom they want to, a woman using that public bathroom who felt afraid because a man was hanging out there would have no grounds to go to the police, nor would the police have much incentive to enter the bathroom, unless there was solid evidence of a real threat. Maybe living with that degree of social anxiety is worth it to you so transgenders, genderfluids, genderqueers and all the rest can pee wherever they like, whenever they like. But it’s a big damn ask for women. — RD]

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