Doc: 'Gender neutral' bathrooms are dangerous

Federal and state governments have opened a new Pandora's box of dangers to the public, especially for women and girls, with the new push for "gender neutral" public bathrooms and locker rooms, allowing people to choose such facilities based on self-perceived gender, rather than biological sex.

Consequence of such absurd ideas are predictable. This video graphically illustrates many case examples of the dangers to vulnerable women. Just recently, a Seattle man began undressing at a public swimming pool women's locker room when a group of young girls were changing for a swim team practice. He was not arrested, as a result of Washington's new law allowing "transgender" men to use women's restrooms. I use quotes around the term transgender because this man had no outward identifying statements or attire to suggest he thought of himself as a woman.

Bathroom equality or "gender neutral" locker rooms is just the latest absurdity in the move by "progressives" to "progress" the United States right out of common sense and public safety. It continues the liberal expansion of "rights" for a minority few against safety and privacy rights of the majority.

To put the tyranny of the minority in perspective here: There are approximately 700,000 transgender people in the U.S., representing about 0.3 percent of the entire population. That means the safety, privacy and common decency concerns for 99.7 percent of the American population are sacrificed on the altar of political correctness and "feel good" policies for a tiny fraction of the public.

Indecent exposure (males exposing genitals to women in public is the most common occurrence), sexual battery, assault, molestation, sex with minors and rape are all crimes in almost all jurisdictions. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to see that telling men they can suddenly decide they "feel" like a woman and thereby use women's bathrooms is a slippery slope to more of all types of these sexual crimes. How does the "feeling" of a gender dysphoric man take priority over the safety of your wife, daughter, girlfriend, mother, sister or friend?

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons released a statement about the importance of separate facilities for men and women to protect public safety: "Attempts by activist groups to force businesses or government facilities to harm, threaten demean, or offend women and girls who do not want to share facilities with biological males are to be resisted and condemned as immoral, irrational, oppressive, and contrary to public order, human rights, public health, and our founding principles."

Let's look at real-life issues. I am a practicing physician with specialty training from the Johns Hopkins Sexual Medicine Consultation team. I have treated people seeking help for many sex and gender issues: gay/lesbian, pedophilia, transvestism, gender dysphoria, voyeurism and serial rapists. At the time transgender patients have undergone surgery to become their new gender, it is then appropriate to use the bathroom facilities for their gender reassignment. Until then, common sense and public safety should require those with male genitalia (regardless of self-perception) use men's bathrooms, and those with female genitalia should use women's bathrooms.

Several striking common denominators emerged from many years of treating patients in this area of medicine:

The unpredictability, and at times uncontrollability, of sexual drives to engage in behaviors potentially harmful physically and/or psychologically to others.
The complete lack of empathy for the victim shown by sexual predators, whether "mild" predation of voyeurism or the obviously serious and criminal acts of rape and assault.
We cannot predict who will engage in sexual assault, or when they will do it.
Statistics show that women and girls are overwhelmingly the victims in such cases of sexual predator actions.

Speaking as a physician, separate bathroom and locker facilities for men and women helps provide physical and psychological safety, particularly for women and girls, from those who would do harm by giving into their sudden urge to rape or molest others. While such safety issues may apply to men as well, it is far less probable that a female enters a men's restroom and starts molesting males, who are typically bigger and stronger and better able to defend themselves.

As James Arlandson wrote in the American Thinker April 12: "Mankind is stronger than womankind. There are simply too many differences between the sexes. Yet our society in its 'infinite wisdom' seems to be smashing those differences. Further, since mankind is stronger than womankind, women need to feel safe. And breaking down the safe space for a woman at her most vulnerable – while she is changing and dressing and showering outside the home – is insane. Her zone of safety, her right to privacy,needs to be protected at all costs."

America really does seem to be entering the Twilight Zone of Absurdity with assaults on morals, decency and safety coming from all directions. The election of 2016 is becoming about far more than "politics" as usual: It is about restoring common sense in the public arena, public safety and enforcing laws that are designed to maintain civil order and civility for ALL, not just a favored few in the minority group du jour.