Join 5,100+

Bathroom bans harm all women because they reduce people down to their appearance
Explainer

Bathroom bans harm all women because they reduce people down to their appearance

Jamie Wareham
Jamie Wareham
TL:DR: As the Speaker of the House of Representatives bans transgender people from using bathrooms that match their identity, we explain why bathroom bans harm all women, because they reduce people to an assessment of their appearance based on gendered norms, and give excuses to those who want to inspect people's genitals.

House Republicans this week set out to restrict Capitol Hill bathrooms by "biological" sex in an action that will specifically target the US's first ever transgender Representative-elect Sarah McBride.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson announced the policy on Wednesday, which is designed to bar transgender women specifically from women’s bathrooms and changing facilities on Capitol Hill - them

The policy was able to be announced by him unilaterally because under current house rules the Speaker has “general control” of facilities - The Hill

McBride, has called on Democrats to ignore anti-Trans rhetoric, and focus on the issues that matter to voters, however, saying:

"This is a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing. We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars." - Delaware Online

The move stemmed from a clip of South Carolina Representative elect Nancy Mace adding a 'biological' sign above a women's restroom, and then campaigning to refuse to share a bathroom with McBride.

Multiple social media accounts retweeted the already viral clip to comment on a white southern woman revelling in an action that allowed her to segregate bathrooms.

Analysis: Bathroom bans harm everyone, especially women

The trouble with bathroom bans is they don’t do what they purport to do. The argument is they're created to 'protect women', but they usually do the opposite. 

The most prominent case study remains North Carolina's in 2016, which was repealed after it was found the law was making women more likely to be the victim of harassment.

“Bathroom bills reduce people to their appearance – when it's peoples’ behaviour that deserves the attention,” Trans Media Watch's Helen Belcher told me when planned UK single-sex laws were shelved under Liz Truss's time as Equalities Minister - QueerAF

"Women start to get singled out because of their appearance. It’s ultimately a law enforcing gender stereotypes.”

Or, as Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez set out, because they prime women and girls to be victims of assault.

"People are going to want to check [women and girls] private parts to suspect who is trans and who is cis," she told reporters after the policy was announced this week, adding: "All it does is allow these Republicans to bully any women not in a skirt because they think they don't look 'woman enough'"

Meanwhile - the most robust communication from all of this came from McBride herself who employed the strongest strategic communication tool possible, leading with the truth and not repeating their lies.

She argued to win voters' hearts and minds, we need to focus on what matters to voters - not Republicans.

And that's exactly what she's promised to do, despite this adversity, and represent Delawarians as she has been elected to do so.


The media is failing us. But the change we want is out there.

The media lobbying work QueerAF does is a vital part of our work - and we need your help to accelerate it.

We need more queer journalists to urgently join newsrooms all over the country, so they can counter harmful narratives, and speak on our behalf.

In the last three years, we've trained, mentored and helped to kickstart the careers of nearly a hundred journalists, creatives and media professionals.

We've met with countless media groups, queer grassroots organisations and LGBTQIA+ third sector organisations.

All the while, we've been in thousands of people's inboxes helping them understand the LGBTQIA+ news - so they can use information as a tool for liberation.

All on a shoestring budget, with a tiny team.

During a Trump presidency, we need to make that work sing louder, punch above our weight even more, and dramatically shift the scales.

We need you to sign up, to help us deliver this week in week out. Which is why we're in the middle of a membership drive.

To secure the future of our work, we need to find 15 new members by the end of the month. After just one week, we're 40% of the way to our first goal, which speaks volumes to how many of you understand the importance of this work.

Will you be next to join the drive? We've laid on some tasty discounts to help make it easier to help out:

The more perks you choose, the better the discount you can grab:

You'll join the likes of Simon Blake, David and Cynthia, who all signed up and claimed a shout out - and you’ll be one of over 300 QueerAF members who help set our editorial agenda.

Media change is long-term work, but with more queers in the media sphere that change is doable. In fact it’s already happening, and we’re making it happen faster with your help.