Why Christians Should Oppose Bathroom Bills

Florida, Kentucky, and Texas, are considering–or have passed–bills that would limit who can use sex-specific restrooms. The stated intent is to prevent men from dressing as women and entering a restroom to expose themselves, rape someone, or commit some other crime against a woman or child. The real intent appears to be to prevent transgender people from using a bathroom at all. As a perhaps unintended consequence, the bills would also affect those of us born with an intersex condition and people who aren’t quite as masculine or feminine as most everyone else.

   image from wipeouttransphobia.com

One of the Texas bills specifies that sex is determined by chromosomes, thus rejecting transgender people who have changed their legal sex. Even in another state.

There are several good reasons for Christians to reject such folly.

1) A woman with the complete form of Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome is born with XY chromosomes, female-typical genitals, and testes in her abdomen rather than ovaries and uterus. If her testes are left in place, she’ll have a normal feminine puberty, yet without menstruation. She might well live her entire life without knowing she’s intersex. The Bible would consider her a barren woman. The Texas bill would consider her male. Such is an egregious persecution of an innocent person.

2) The proponents of these bills state that the intent is to protect children from predators. Yet we already have laws that would apply to a man dressing as a woman, entering a women’s restroom, and committing a crime against someone in the restroom. Exposing oneself or raping someone is already against the law.

3) The bills would force transgender people to use a bathroom that goes against their gender, thus making bathroom occupants uncomfortable and increasing the likelihood of violence against the transgender person. Below is a photo of Buck Angel, an XX female-to-male transsexual. Legally, he’d have to use the womens’ restroom.

4)  People born with intersex conditions in which their chromosomal sex doesn’t agree with their genital sex would have to use a bathroom inappropriate to their gender. From the wording, it’s likely that I would be unable to legally use either a mens’ restroom or a womens’ restroom. My karyotype is 46,XY,22qs+/45,X,22qs+, which is certainly not standard male or female.

5) One of the Texas bills actually offers a bounty for anyone finding a transgender person in a bathroom different from one that would ‘match’ their biological birth sex. This would encourage people to harass anyone whose presentation doesn’t fit a binary model of sex. A teen not quite as masculine as his peers might well find a bathroom an unpleasant place to visit. As if they weren’t already bullied enough.

6) Most states have laws that allow a legal change in sex. The Texas bill would ignore the legal sex status of a person, regardless of the place of their birth. But only when they enter a restroom. So, they’d be legally one sex outside the restroom and the other when inside. Does that really make sense to anyone?

7) The law isn’t enforceable without draconian intrusions on privacy. I’m female. I look like a woman. Is someone who doesn’t know that I’m intersex going to stop me at the bathroom door and ask for a karyotype? I think not. Only those whose appearance doesn’t fit someone’s concept of masculine or feminine is going to be harassed. So, enforcement will be selective, discriminating against those whose appearance isn’t masculine or feminine enough.

8) Come on. Really. Most bathrooms have stalls. And most female-to-male trans people aren’t going to be using the urinals. Okay? You’re not gonna see their private parts.

9) Is this really the Gospel? Would the love of Christ harass people whose only goal is to pee in peace? Even if you’re positive that transgender people are breaking God’s law (which they’re not–see Matthew 19:12), the bills would discriminate against people who aren’t transgender.

It’s clear to me that this isn’t about preventing rapes. It’s about a bigoted rejection of people who are already subject to a high suicide rate, a high murder rate, and bullying. Sorry, but what happened to compassion? As Christians, we should share the Gospel and repent of our hate.

‘If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.’ 1 John 4:20 (ESV)

See Hating Transgender Kids

6 thoughts on “Why Christians Should Oppose Bathroom Bills

  1. The part about not recognizing another state’s gender/sex designation baffles me. In my courtroom I have hearings on sex/gender change petitions (Sex in the Courtroom) and once I decree it I can’t see how it won’t be respected (in the legal sense, that is). Are bathrooms more important than birth certificates? Because when I decree a change in designation, the person gets a new birth certificate reflecting the new legal status.

  2. Matthew 19:12 – Uh, however you try to twist that, eunuchs aren’t males trying to convince everyone they’re females. Eunuchs are males, period. They’re understood to be male. There are no female eunuchs.

    I guess the LGBT carefully ignored Matthew 19:4-6.

    There are separate passages dealing with presenting yourself as the opposite sex in 1 Corinthians chapters 6 and 11. Also mentioned in the Old Testament in Deut. 22:5. Other verses point out modesty is important, nude beaches aren’t encouraged. Are you looking for illiterate Christians?

  3. Having a guy in a woman’s bathroom is just plain uncomfortable. Maybe they should make a separate bathroom for transgenders then everyone would feel more comfortable and it would be more safe for everyone. Sorry but the whole thing is just ridiculous a person is either a male or a female it really wasn’t supposed to be so complicated!

    • I’m not sure anyone wants a guy in a woman’s bathroom, but sex is more complicated than male and female. Unless you reduce it to a single parameter. Like chromosomes. Or genitals. Or gender identity. As a woman, what I expect is that people behave while they’re in the restroom with me. Whatever their chromosomes or genitals. And if they’re living as a woman, I’m not likely to question them. Indeed, the people who get questioned typically are masculine women or feminine men. Not transgender people.

  4. Hi – this is an old blog but I just emailed my TX senate rep sharing my experience and asking him to oppose the SB2 law. I am Christian and I want the best for all God’s children, created in His image.
    I was the victim of a “peeping tom” in a women’s restroom. The man had a mustache and dressed in traditional men’s fashion – he was not trying to impersonate a woman. His cell phone camera was quietly slid underneath the divider between the toilet stalls. When I saw his hand, I stomped on it. I am a fast and strong woman so I chased him down and had him arrested. Let’s find a way to stop this kind of crime. SB2 would not have prevented this crime. What about stricter penalties for peeping tom behavior or cell phone use in public bathrooms and locker rooms?
    Above all else we must love one another. SB2 does not love anyone. Thanks for blogging!

  5. As a follower of Christ I can see the importance of recognizing the pain that people face who were born with ambiguous features or that were assigned a gender by parents or doctors at birth without the proper chromosomal test being done. I think that as a society and as Christians we need to understand that everything is not always going to be fair for everyone and that some people will have it more difficult than others. Many people are born with challenges, either mentally, or physically, so what about sexually?… Whether it starts from birth or from puberty there are those who do not fit neatly into the only two categories God created, while creating. I think we need to support them and love them but we do not need to fix or change everything for them. It would be hard I am sure to be in this situation and I try to have compassion. Matthew 19:12 is referring to marriage and divorce, specifying Eunuchs as those who do not have the ability to have sex or procreate, Either from birth, or having been mutilated by OTHERS and THEN those who chose to LIVE like eunuchs (by not marrying and abstaining), not becoming Eunuchs by modifying themselves with surgery. There is a line between people born with both parts due to a chromosomal mix up and those who “feel” they don’t belong and then believe the lie that they are not worth staying the way God made them and then resort to all sorts of desperate acts to feel loved, either by defiling themselves with promiscuity or mutilating their bodies. This is all sexual immorallity which is a sin against the body. These people are looking for gratification of the flesh, and a sense of belonging, looking for love… And they will only find it in Christ. It is important that we love those who have it more difficult than most of us but we cannot jump on the societal bandwagon that says that all of this is okay. Thx.

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