This is what happens when you try to police bathrooms.

This is what happens when you try to control people down to the tiniest details. Charlie is not the first cis woman to get harassed while using the bathroom. She definitely won’t be the last as long as people are policing bathrooms. Other women have been confronted and targeted while attempting to use public restrooms.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

When you target transwomen, you’re also targeting women that don’t fit your personal description of a woman. You’re targeting more masculine women. It might be a woman wearing Mens’ clothing. It could be a woman with a short haircut. She might just have a strong jawline. Her confidence might intimidate a handful of people. Maybe she’s active and her muscles show it. None of these things give anyone a right to confront them about simply using the bathroom.

It’s a bathroom for women. Why can’t a woman use it?

Nobody should care if a transwoman goes in there or not. You should care if a woman walks into a Mens’ restroom. You should care if a man walks into a Womens’ restroom. You know why you should care? Because it immediately puts them in an uncomfortable and even dangerous situation.

When a transwoman is forced into the Mens’ restroom, she is being forced to walk into a trap. She could get sexually assaulted. She could get beat up. She could bleed out in that bathroom, all because you’re terrified she might touch a woman in the womens’ restroom. Transgender people unfortunately spend entirely too much time stressing and planning out the safest way to use a public restroom. We often look for gender–nuetral bathrooms or try to hold it until we can get home.

When a transman is forced to go into the Womens’ restroom even after he’s started to grow a beard and has a deep voice, you’re making both him and the women in there uncomfortable. He could be harassed. He could even be hit by a woman that’s scared for her safety.

All we want to do is pee.

We do not want to stare at women in the bathroom. We do not want to assault anyone. We do not want to harass anyone. If anyone gets targeted, it’s us. We simply want to walk in, take care of our business, wash our hands, and leave. It’s that simple.

It should always be that simple, but it’s not. It’s not simple because cis–gendered people can’t rest until they make it a big deal.

A man is going to dress up as a woman so he can rape a woman in the bathroom!

I don’t want a man in the Womens’ bathroom! My little girl uses that restroom.

Go to the restroom you belong in!

You can’t always tell whether someone is trans just by looking at them. What happened to Charlie and tons of other women is a perfect example. There are some transmen and transwomen walking past you on the sidewalk or in the store and you’ll never know they transitioned. They do a damn good job of passing as cis.

However, some cisgender male and females don’t exactly fit society’s definition of men and women. They are thrown right in the barrel with transpeople, even though that was never cis peoples’ intention. They will still get harassed and attacked even though they’re not transgender, and it has to stop.

Nobody should get attacked for wanting to relieve themselves. No one should be forcing themselves to hold it in until they get home because they’re afraid they’ll get harassed.

Do better.