OP-ED: "Soon I'll occupy the men's room stall next to you. Thank the Ohio Legislature. " [View all]

[Montauk6]

I’m a 26-year-old woman, former middle school teacher, current graduate student at Miami University, and soon I’ll occupy the stall next to you in the university men’s bathroom!

Thank the Ohio Legislature. In typical fashion, they added a partisan amendment to a previously bipartisan education bill they just passed. The amendment stipulates that all students in Ohio, including university students, must use the bathroom that corresponds to the sex assigned to them at birth. It’s a classic "bathroom bill" and yet another symbol of our state’s inability to focus on the actual problems that face us.

I’ve never had trouble with students or colleagues over the quirk of my birth, in part because I am a woman in the eyes of the law and the people I interact with daily. It’s been about four years since the last time I was directly "misgendered" (confused for a man). And biologically speaking, via hormone medication and surgery, I am female. So when people who have transitioned like me are forced to use the wrong bathroom, it comes at the risk of our safety.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/soon-i-ll-occupy-the-men-s-room-stall-next-to-you-thank-the-ohio-legislature-opinion/ar-AA1v3ZJS?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=09c4cc06021e4cd7b8c243ed30e350e9&ei=9

(... And none dare call it terrorism.)