Buzzfeed's Dominic Holden dives deep into the one talking point that has been defeating anti-discrimination bills around the country: that men will claim to be transgender women in order to gain access to women's bathrooms.
From Buzzfeed:
[Human Rights Campaign's] defeat can be attributed primarily to one ubiquitous, bumper-sticker-ready slogan: “No men in women’s bathrooms.” Anti-LGBT activists ran that message with visceral TV and radio commercials that claimed Houston’s nondiscrimination law would lead to men sexually assaulting young girls in public restrooms. This attack has been raised by conservative opponents virtually everywhere laws like this have been debated in recent years...
Although the attacks, as described by critics, are a myth, discrimination against transgender people is verifiably rampant. Study after study shows trans people are refused jobs and housing, physically attacked, and murdered in highly disproportionate rates. According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, homicides of trans women in the United States doubled in the past year.
So the bathroom smear against this population is not just a means to legalize anti-transgender discrimination, it’s a catalyst to promote it.