Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS

The latest cause celebre – transgender bathrooms – is just another example of how little women’s lives matter these days. What ever happened to our celebrated right to privacy? Apparently, it only applies to abortion rights – not our public restrooms.

Not long ago, the Daily Signal did a report on several victims of sexual assault who voiced concerns about a new “bathroom bill” that had recently passed in Washington state. Their opposition to the bills had nothing to do with their feelings about transgenders. It was all about women’s safety and how easy it will be for the ill-intentioned to use these new laws to gain access to victims.

One woman, Janine Smith of Puyallup, Washington, who was raped beginning at the age of nine, tried to get lawmakers to listen to their point-of-view but to no avail. In fact, she is now being portrayed by the media as a “fearmonger.”

“Over and over again, women are told your abuse is not important, it’s not important to fund, it’s not important to protect. This is just one more way for us to know that our abuse doesn’t matter, that we’re not protected,” Simon told the Signal, adding: “And now I’m a fearmonger because I’m speaking out about it. I don’t accept it. I’m not. I’m not crying that the sky is falling. This is actually happening. It’s not a pretend thing, I wish it was.”

Another child abuse victim named Kaeley Triller Haver, 32, of Olympia, Washington, who also spoke out about the dangers of the state’s proposed new bathroom law, tried to set the record straight.

“I am not saying that transgender people are predators. Not by a long shot. What I am saying is that there are countless deviant men in this world who will pretend to be transgender as a means of gaining access to the people they want to exploit, namely women and children. It already happens.”

Why isn’t anyone listening to these and millions of other women who are horrified at just the thought of how much easier it will be for men to prey upon them in restrooms across the country?

Because of political correctness, of course. For example, listen to how this female abuse survivor characterized the Daily Signal and others who are voicing opposition to these laws based on concerns for women’s safety.

“Those who are promoting their stories, including the Heritage Foundation, are claiming they want to ‘protect’ them. Actually, however, like these women’s original abusers, these ‘helpers’ are acting only in their own interests,” accuses author Loree Cook-Daniels. “In this case, their interest is ensuring transgender people are not guaranteed rights to privacy and safety.”

As proof, she offers a link to a report by the citadel of biased reporting – Media Matters – entitled “15 Experts Debunk Right-Wing Transgender Myths” which relies heavily on comments from various LGBT and other advocacy groups. Under closer scrutiny, the article immediately begins to unravel.

For instance, the piece features a statement by Jim O’Neill, spokesman for the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights in Opportunities who tells the author: “Unaware of any sexual assault as result of the CT gender or identity expression law.”

O’Neill didn’t do his homework. Just four months before the July 2011 signing of the law into effect, a 20 year-old transgendered man sexually assaulted a special needs boy after luring him into a bathroom at the Stamford Towne Center in Stamford, Connecticut.

Another authority named Charlie Burr, spokesman for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries also claimed “zero allegations” of bathroom assaults. He must have been out of town when Thomas Lee Benson, a cross-dressing child sex abuser, was arrested for entering a woman’s locker room at North Clackamas Aquatic Park in July of 2012 (see below for the sordid details).

In spite of these rather obvious oversights, proponents of “transgender rights” continue to insist that “There is not a single incident in the U.S. of a transgender person sexually or physically assaulting a cisgender person in a restroom, nor are there any confirmed cases of sexual predators using transgender protection laws as a means of committing sexual assault.”

Say what? I guess we’re supposed to be believe that the following list of cases – some of which occurred this year – are “all in our minds.”

2016

A 19 year-old James Thomas Shoemaker of Quarryville, Pennsylvania man was arrested last week after a 10 year-old girl said she caught the man watching her while she used the restroom. When police found him, Shoemaker was still in the stall of the ladies room where he was reportedly using his phone to watch porn to look over the stall next to him.

A 33 year-old Palmdale, California man who dressed as a woman in order to gain access to a woman’s bathroom in a Macy’s department store was arrested by police. Wearing a wig and a bra, he set up a video camera in the facility where he recorded hours of women using the bathroom.

Just a few weeks after Washington state implemented new bathroom regulations allow people to use the restroom that corresponded to their “gender identity”, a man walked into a woman’s locker room at a public pool and began undressing. When women summoned the staff, the man, who never identified himself as being transgendered, simply told them that “the law has changed and I have a right to be here.” He was never arrested.

2015

Police arrest a 30 year-old man who was caught dressing as a woman and peeping into bathroom stalls at the Potomac Mills Mall in Prince William County, Virginia.

Administrators at the University of Toronto were forced to make temporary changes to its gender-neutral bathrooms after two separate incidents of voyeurism were reported on the campus. Male students within the University’s Whitney Hall residence were caught holding cellphones over shower stalls where female students were showering.

2014

A biological man claiming to be ‘transgender’ was jailed indefinitely after he gained access to women at two Toronto shelters and sexually assaulted several women. The incidents began to occur shortly after the Ontario government passed a “bathroom bill”.

Gregory Schwartz, 41, was arrested in San Diego after donning a pink Barbie costume at a Big Lots store, then crawling under a bathroom stall to assault a woman. Schwartz’s attorney said her client was high on meth and was suffering from a drug induced “travestic fetishism” at the time of the attack.

2013 

Thomas Lee Benson, 39, who has a history of dressing as a woman and of sexually abusing children, dressed as a woman to enter the women’s locker room at North Clackamas Aquatic Park in Oak Grove Oregon in July of 2012. When he was arrested, he was wearing a wig, lipstick and eyeliner. He was sentenced to only nine months in jail and has since been released.

Rodney Kenneth Petersen, 46, was arrested on multiple charges for dressing up as a woman and attempting to take pictures of women at a female-only dormitory at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California. Petersen also entered other facilities in Rancho Cucamonga and Yucaipa where he tried to take pictures of women with a cell phone hidden in his purse.

2012

A 18 year-old man named Taylor J. Buehler, of Lake Stevens, Washington was arrested after being found in a woman’s bathroom at Everett Community College. He was wearing a bra and a wig and had a pair of women’s underwear in his front pocket. During his arrest he admitted that he had also taken a shower in the girls’ locker room for sexual gratification.

2011

A 20 year-old transgendered man who identifies as a woman was arrested after sexually assaulting a teenage boy with special needs. Police say he met the boy at a park in Stamford, Connecticut, then lured him into a men’s room where he sexually assaulted him.

2010
Police arrest a 29 year-old man who disguised himself as a woman to get inside a University of California Berkeley locker room where he used a cell phone to photograph women.

Norwood Smith Burnes, 51, of Rome, Arkansas was wearing women’s clothing when he was arrested for allegedly undressing in front of children at a local Walmart. Burnes has a long record of indecent exposure.

As this list proves, there’s a reason why people  are afraid – and it’s a good one! It’s not “hate”. It’s not “discrimination”. It’s not a bunch of unfounded “myths”. It’s common sense. Make it easier to commit a crime and a crime will be committed.

If activists are really interested in accommodating transgendered persons, they would have no problem with movements to allow businesses, schools and public buildings to designate “unisex” bathrooms where they can tend their needs in peace. But they aren’t interested in transgender “rights.” What they really want is to engage in social engineering which is the only explanation for why they would force these people to use restrooms where the majority of the public don’t want them. Talk about uncomfortable!

And what about all of those liberal pundits who were so anxious to protect a woman’s right to privacy? Where are they now? Hiding under their political correctness is where. Obviously, the right to privacy only applies to abortion “rights.”  Everywhere else, forget it.

The bottom line is that not only do womens’ lives matter – but the quality of those lives matter as well. We have enough on our minds than to have to worry about whether or not the woman in the stall next to us is biologically female, a transgender, or a pervert.

Give transgenders their own bathrooms and leave us all in peace.

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