(Content Warning: Sexual assault, rape culture)

(Note: This comic has been transcribed below.)

We’re not falling for the lie that banning transgender women from women’s public restrooms is about protecting cis women from predators.

Check out who’s telling us these lies, and you’ll know exactly why we’re seeing right through them. This comic reveals who’s really behind these bills – and the sexual assault statistics they would be addressing instead if they really cared about doing something about rape.

When these bills are actually upholding rape culture instead of helping dismantle it, it’s clear that they’re not about “safety” at all.



With Love,

The Editors at Everyday Feminism

Click for the Transcript Panel 1 (A senator behind a podium speaks angrily. In his speech bubble, there’s an image of the trans symbol covered up with a red x.) Text: There are a lot of people who believe trans women should be banned from the women’s restroom. Panel 2 (On a TV screen, there’s an ad for bathroom bills. It features a little girl walking to a bathroom stall. Behind her, there’s an ominous adult male shadow laughing villainously.) Text: Arguments for the ban usually involve a predatory male pretending to be a woman in order to commit sexual assault. TV Announcer: Please protect your daughters! Panel 3 (Same image as Panel 2, but there’s no shadow this time, and in its place, there’s a completely non-threatening looking trans woman washing her hands at the sink.) Text: However, there are currently no documented cases in the US of this ever happening. Trans Woman: I just wanna be able to pee, y’all. Panel 4 (Same trans woman at the sink in a men’s restroom. The other guys catcall and whistle at her. She looks very scared and uncomfortable.) Text: On the other hand, 12% of trans people have reported being attacked or sexually assaulted in a bathroom per year. Text: Certainly, letting them choose the safest bathroom would lower assault statistics. Panel 5 (Split screen: On the left, the trans woman from the previous panels is crying outside the men’s restroom. On the right, a cis woman is crying by the window of her apartment building.) Text: Plus, cis women are being attacked – just clearly not by trans women in restrooms. Panel 6 (The cis woman looks back sadly upon the scene of her past self laughing happily with her rapist and watching a movie at the apartment.) Text: Eighty percent of the time, cis women already know their attacker, and the event is most likely to occur at or near someone’s home. Panel 7 (Solid-color panel with a few big question marks) Text: So who’s telling us that rape of cis women in bathrooms is this huge problem – and why? Panel 8 (Image of Pat McCrory praying) Text: In 2016, Governor Pat McCrory enacted an anti-trans bathroom bill in North Carolina. Text: This same man has said: Trump’s sexual assault tape is comparable to Hillary lying. pregnancy resulting from rape is “something god intended to happen.” Panel 9 (Image of Republican Delegate Bob Marshall holding ultrasound equipment) Text: In Virginia, Delegate Bob Marshall also proposed a bathroom bill that also forces principals to notify parents if their child comes out as trans. Text: This same man: approves of enforcing mandatory, transvaginal ultrasounds before an abortion. yelled at other Republicans for allowing jelly-on-the-belly ultrasounds instead. Panel 10 (Image of Donald Trump yelling angrily) Text: Recently, Donald Trump removed federal protections for trans students’ bathroom rights. His cabinet has backed the decision as a measure to “protect all students.” Text: Trump has also: entered the Miss Teen USA dressing room while they were changing, according to five sources. been sued for the rape of a 13-year-old girl. described sexually assaulting a married woman on tape. Panel 11 (Silhouettes of all three politicians snickering with each other) Text: Clearly, these guys don’t really care about ending rape. Panel 12 (The politicians’ hands point at a trans woman as she tries to enter the women’s restroom) Text: Except in one, specific situation – Text: That allows them to look like they care. Panel 13 (A group of cis women start yelling at the trans woman and blocking the door.) Text: While they pit two groups of women against each other – Panel 14 (Zoom out from Panel 13 to reveal that all of the women are small people in a snow globe that cis men are looking down upon and laughing at) Text: Leaving the actual rapists free to attack both of them.

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