Bathroom Dilemma

             By Florida Bill                   
 
                                      If you think that we, in America, have transgender issues, you're so right. But we are not alone in that regard, and haven't been for a very long time. Scandinavia, for example, has been intrigued with a specific question of gender for centuries. 
                            In 1632, at the age of 4, Christina ascended to the throne of Sweden as the only heir of her father, King Gustav II, who died in battle.  Initially, as a baby, Christina was thought to be a boy, but later it was announced that the royal child was a girl.  But growing up she was very much a tomboy and took to wearing male clothes.   She received a princely education with high marks in fencing, horsemanship, archery and hunting. She assumed the mantle of queen at 16 years old and ruled until she was 22 when she abdicated.  She did so after declining to ever marry.  She left, adopting the name of Count Dohna and settled in Rome where she assumed the  persona of a man.  Believed to have the affliction of 
hirsutism, she had a beard and was considered an able swordsman.  
                            The Count was scholarly and brilliant and spoke several languages, but had always been a curiosity to her subjects and others in terms of her gender.  She led an active life, living in Rome, where she became a close friend of Pope Alexander VII and of the philosopher, Rene Descartes.  Christina died in 1689 at the age of 62, but her life and persona remained a mystery as to her true sex and whether she might have been an hermaphrodite. 
                            Questions about Christina did not stop with her death.  They continued for nearly 300 years and in 1965, her remains were exhumed from her burial vault in the Vatican and examined by  archaeologists who reported that the physical remains, judged anatomically, were that of a woman.  However, questions of what kind of internal sex organs she possessed could not be ascertained as a result of the passage of time, and so the story of her actual sex has been left forever to speculation.   

                                      Obviously, the question of gender and sexual identity intrigues society. Here in America, President Obama has turned his focus on the growing concern of fair treatment for these young men and women who are born as one sex, and now identify as the other.  Some have had reassignment surgery and others have not.  But Obama has created a firestorm by taking his executive action and decreeing that those who fit the T in LGBT shall be allowed to use the bathroom of the sex with which they identify.  At least 11 states are opposing his mandate and have filed lawsuits to end his plan.  Sounds like Obama is going too far with his executive pen.
                       Under the Obama directive, the federal government will decide who whizzes and showers in which bathroom inside the nation's 100,000 K-12 schools; and if the school objects to the edict of Obama, federal funds will be withheld, and individuals and entities could face lawsuits for violation of civil rights.  
                         Democratic nominee for President, Hillary Clinton has said that she supports Obama's directive to open up chosen bathrooms to people who claim to be transgender.  Republican nominee Donald Trump has said that the issue should be left to individual states to resolve, and that the inept Obama should quit trying to transform America into a liberal bastion of political correctness.
                        Some months ago, Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina signed into law a requirement that transgender individuals, students for the most part, were to use the bathroom of the sex which they were born with, and which was recorded on their birth certificates.  This drew screams of bigotry and racism from the LGBT element of society, which demanded that individuals responding to the call of nature should use the bathroom of the sex they identify with.  In other words, opponents of the law feel that individuals who have transitioned from one sex to another, with or without reassignment surgery, should make the decision as to their sex and then use the bathroom of their choice--no matter how they look or dress.
                    In response,  Attorney General Loretta Lynch, always loyal to her chief, announced that denying transgender persons the proper bathroom facility, (and locker room) would be considered sexual discrimination in accord with the 1964 civil rights law.  After Lynch laid the ground work, President Obama had his Department of Education issue a directive to schools to let the transgender person decide on his or her bathroom. Schools which do not comply are likely to lose federal assistance.   
                      If you call yourself a male, whatever be your plumbing package, you head for the men's john.  If you decide that you are a lady, you are entitled to use the woman's washroom. If the washroom is also a shower room, as in high school gyms, and if an individual with male equipment steps into a woman's shower---well, this could--and should--cause some major consternation. If there is resistance by school authorities, Atty Gen. Loretta Lynch will sue and seek monetary damages.                                                                               "Putting boys in girls' locker rooms and showers is crazy," said Joy Pullman in The Federalist. com.  "I would move to Australia, quit my job and do about anything to keep my daughter from having to shower next to a naked penis-bodied being," she wrote.
                                "Obama is destroying the traditional American public school... acting in his typical imperial fashion," noted David French in National Review.com. 
                                    Curt Schilling, a former major league pitching star, got fired from his job at the liberal-minded ESPN as a commentator when he took exception to the liberal Obama law.  Using the social media, Schilling tweeted that the men's bathroom was designed for individuals with a penis.  To say otherwise is "pathetic"  but unfortunately, if you object, you are nothing but "a narrow minded, judgmental unloving, racist bigot..."
                               But, while decency and privacy are big enough issues, they aren't the only problem. There is the question of safety, at least for girls and even women. No, there doesn't seem to be much fear that a transgender person is going to attack someone of the sex he identifies with while taking care of business in the bathroom of his or her choice.
                          But this bathroom free-for-all policy also gives your garden-variety pervert, with no transgender issues at all, the perfect opening. He can announce that he considers himself a woman, and bingo, he can stroll without risk of obstruction into the ladies room at parks, sporting events, schools, malls, rest areas and any other public place where females of any age could then be at risk. Are bathroom bouncers going to become a fact of life?
                      Did Obama really think this thing through? 


                                                 
                                         
     



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