Debunking Bathroom Myths

Let the facts speak for themselves!

Experts on crime, like the police, state over and over again that NDOs [Non-Discrimination Ordinances allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their gender] do not result in an increase in sexual assault or rape.
Spokesmen for police departments in Iowa, Hawaii, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Texas have all gone on record stating that NDOs do not result in an increase in the number of reported rapes or sexual assaults in their jurisdictions. In fact, 17 states and 200 cities have such NDOs in place, and have not had an increase in sexual assault.
Similarly, experts who advocate for sexual assault victims in these states with gender identity inclusive NDOs state the same thing: NDOs which include gender identity do not result in an increase in the number of reported sexual assaults.

Brynn Tannehill in The Huff Post.

New Stats Reveal How Often Trans People Attack You in Bathrooms

States in the US and Canada are enacting "bathroom bills,“ which restrict transgender people from using bathrooms in line with their gender identity. The main argument seems to be the old “trans women are male sexual predators” cliche.

This must be a huge problem, right, to warrant separate legislation?

The statistics say otherwise: In the US there are no instances of trans women who have attacked non-transgender women in public bath rooms: Zero, zilch, nada!

The US National Center for Transgender Equality says that they have "not heard of a single instance of a transgender person harassing a non-transgender person in a public restroom. Those who claim otherwise have no evidence that this is true and use this notion to prey on the public’s stereotypes and fears about transgender people."

As I understand it there have been no examples of trans men attacking non-transgender men, either.

Identities Mic has more about this.

(Illustration from tweet by Cailin_Becoming)

Sexist Americans are now using bathroom access to stigmatize trans people, implying that trans women are perverted men out to molest real women.

In this way they manage to combine the two big purity hang-ups in American culture: sex and body waste. This is probably why the tactic works in some instances, in the some way some states managed to uphold racially segregated restrooms not that long ago.

In the long run, however, this propaganda is bound to backfire. At the moment people see trans women as real living human beings, their oppressors are revealed to be the perverted ones.

Illustration from In Contempt.