With the recent laws passed in North Carolina concerning its policy on bathrooms and the resulting blatant discrimination toward transgender American citizens, let’s all take a seat and discuss why discriminating against the transgender demographic is ridiculous.

Following the trend of being a minority population that has brought about social and civil change, transgendered people have a long history in the United States.

The first time gender stereotypes and roles were questioned in the United States was in the 1950’s during which time women were taking over the jobs that had previously been filled by the soldiers that went off to fight in WWII. During that time, Christine Jorgensen was in the public eye as being known to undergo a successful sex reconfiguration.  

Working women proved that women are more than just housewives while Christine Jorgensen battled against the entire concept of gender conformity.

While Reed Erickson created the Erickson Educational Foundation, all LGBT people began being harassed by police due to the legislation and heterosexism that formed that allowed  unrest that would cause the bursts of riots in America.

Police would stalk gay men into their homes, catching them having sex with one another in order to arrest them. When LGBT youth were thrown out of bars or coffee shops, those who didn’t dress accurately to their assigned genders were arrested. Unsolved, brutal murders of transgendered people had riddled the streets of cities and towns with dead corpses and clueless investigators.

Because of this, civil unrest started among certain LGBT populations.

The first instance took place place at a coffee shop known as Cooper’s Doughnuts In Los Angeles California, 1959.

This shop had been near local gay bars and was a popular establishment for lgbt patrons to visit. Police officers knew of this and had taken hustlers and drag queens and one other and proceeded to force them into the back of cop car.

When one patron had protested calling out the legality of the amount of people being put into one car, the rest took their chance to escape as the cops tried to force the protesting man in. Being fed up on being arrested, a crowd formed and cops were met with flying mugs and pastries and trash.

Arrests were made and the street was closed; however, that was only one of two major riots that sparked what would become an important and prolific civil rights movement.

Some years later in 1966, San Francisco California, an attempt at arresting a trans woman under the “cross dressing” law was made at Compton’s Cafeteria which was met with coffee thrown at the officer from the said woman and a more organized riot ensured.

Broken windows, broken dishes, broken furniture, and a burning newsstand marked the second riot in Los Angeles.

LGBT locals and aggressive lesbian and gay groups named the Street Orphans and Vanguard had picketed the cafeteria the night after which in turned drew some attention but not as much as the main event, The Stonewall Riots.

On June 28 1969, New York City, cops had been terrorizing bars and known queer hangouts for years kicking out persons without ID at lgbt hangout spots, arresting cross dressers, and beating any person for simply being LGBT.

All of the maltreatment and tension culminated one morning at the Stonewall Inn.

When the cops had entered for the usual routine the people witnessed to the attempted arrests were agitated and angry. Instead of letting the cops arrest a lesbian woman the people threw coins and trash at the officers which eventually lead up to larger more solid and heavy objects being thrown.

Once the police had realized their situation they proceeded to attempt to lock themselves in the inn and the date had been saved in history.

Slogans were chanted, “Gay power,” “We shall overcome,” and one woman by the name of Marsha P. Johnson was the first to throw the brick at the window, which marked the beginning of the riots.

When the riot squad was formed the people who were involved circled the block to protest loudly behind them. A group of drag queens who called themselves the “Stonewall Girls” lined up in a rockette fashion and sang their protests at the officers.

The protests lasted six days and attracted supporters and sympathizers with the lgbt youth.

After the riots the two most famous transgender youth advocates,Sylvia Rivera and another woman mentioned above, Marsha P. Johnson, had continued to speak on behalf of the lgbt demographic starting organizations and together the friends co-funded the organization,the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries which worked with homeless drag queens and helped Trans woman of color.

Soon after Drag queens and transgender people were resented by the other members in the lgbt community because of their identity. Lesbian organizations thought transgender woman were “male infiltrators.” A group called the Gay Activists Alliance, which consisted of mainly white gay men, focused on their own rights and refused to loan money for rent to STARR or other activities that would have helped the program.

Despite their central role in the stonewall riot transgender people were excluded from the movement they started.

On top of the exclusion from the LGBT community transgender people were killed with no investigation and the crime was never classified as what it is, a hate crime.

Marsha P. Johnson, unfortunately, was victim to an unsolved hate crime.  

July 6th, 1992, Johnson disappeared shortly after the Pride march and later on was found floating in the Hudson River. Police haven’t officially announced the cause of her death and initially deemed it a suicide. After years of campaigning from friends of Johnson and Trans activists the NYPD reopened the case in 2012 as a possible homicide.  

This isn’t a pastime issue either, in 2015 alone there had been at least 20 murders of transgender people.

Tamara Dominguez, Elisha Walker, Kandis Capri, Amber MonRoe, Ashton O’Hara, Lamia Beard, were all victims and were killed from hate crimes with ongoing or unsolved cases. Out of the 20 cases only 9 have actually been charged with murder.

Social advances need to be made as well.

While the voice of transgender people have been on the rise, the public bigotry and discrimination is still rampant.

Adults and even children are now at risk while using the public bathroom as they are told to only use the one that is designated for the initial gender identity.

Teenagers and younger face bullying in schools and social media, Young adults can be fired or denied a job based on the fact they are trans, and the murders of transgender citizens are far too common.

However if you are still hung up on the thought of someone who identifies as trans and uses the preferred bathroom the problem doesn’t lie within them.

Transgender citizens have been using public bathrooms for far longer than the recent and convenient worries of sexual assault that is being used by North Carolina to justify blatant discrimination.

If one still were to worry themselves about what “parts” a person has underneath their clothes I would ask that person to remember and hold dear to them the wise words of Marsha P. Johnson and “Pay It No Mind” and continue on their day. Problem solved