We as a society have come a long way when it comes to understanding that not everything can be black or white. Change and evolution as a people can be a truly difficult thing, and there will undoubtedly be divisions that spring up due to such changes. In a way, western society is still really learning about itself and the people that help to make it so great. Women’s suffrage, the Black Right’s movement, and most recently gay marriage have been hot-button issues in their own times, with ardent supporters and detractors, but change came like-it-or-not.
The next hurdle for our society to overcome will undoubtedly be transgender rights. The traditional gender binaries are simply not functioning for everyone, and once again, change is coming to ensure the safety and equal treatment for transgender people. Yet, of course, there are hurdles, and what has been more of a hurdle than the recent North Carolina bathroom law to highlight the struggles that a society goes through when change is happening? The law purports that whatever gender one was born with should define which public restroom is used, or face punishment from the law.
The law seemingly came from fear-mongering over the concept of men in drag entering women’s restrooms and assaulting them, while much of it feels like more of a pull towards “tradition” in what is still a rather adolescent nation in the grand scheme of things. The law has been met with understandable outrage across the board, as well as public figures denouncing or imposing bans on being involved with the state while the law stands.
Mashable reported on a post from a New Jersey photographer, Meg Bitton, that makes a simple, yet elegant point. That post is a photo was of a girl named Corey Maison. Corey was born with the anatomy of a boy, but has since discovered that it wasn’t quite right. Since then she has been living as a girl. The post points out how unconscionable it would be the send a young girl such as Corey into a men’s bathroom and act like that is somehow “safer.”
(Via Mashable)