Every so often, I come across a news story so absurd that I question how it can possibly be real. As of Dec. 1, public school restrooms in Chicago have become gender-neutral.
Facilities previously for boys or girls have been renamed “boys+” and “girls+” for restrooms containing urinals and stalls or stalls only, respectively. The fact that “gender-inclusive” restrooms are branded as “equitable” and “safe” conveys what is driving this trend: activism that is bound to associated intimidation and abject fear.
Gender-neutral spaces may be safer for gender-questioning individuals in the context of female-designated spaces accommodating individuals born male. But no one with functional brain cells truly believes allowing men into women’s spaces will increase women’s safety. This is a euphemism for wanting to avoid being called “transphobic.”
In addition to minimizing girls’ physical safety, these policies overlook the fact that adolescence is a developmentally challenging time. Girls feel understandably self-conscious about menstruation and other changes to their bodies associated with puberty, a discomfort largely responsible for the drastic uptick in the number of young women suddenly identifying as male. As someone who has previously worked with sexual offenders, my concern is not about transgender people accessing these spaces but rather sexual predators exploiting them, including alleged adolescent offenders.
At some schools, parents are especially concerned because older teenage boys share the same facilities as their young daughters. In the case of school-aged children, interacting with the opposite sex in intimate spaces can be unpleasant and uncomfortable, even if these exchanges do not involve sexual assault. In Scotland, some female students hold their bladders all day, putting themselves at risk of infection because they do not want to use gender-neutral restrooms. Some of their male peers reportedly treat menstrual products as props for practical jokes and urinate in disposal bins.
Transgender activism has been intensely focused on molding societal conventions around the acceptance of “transgender children” because it helps to normalize and further the agenda of adults. Suppose a person’s gender identity is more important than their biological sex. In that case, no one is justified in criticizing directives that treat the sexes as interchangeable, even if these initiatives demean and subjugate women.
The continued obliteration of sex-specific spaces begs the question of whether the safety of girls is being considered. Quite possibly no. Worse yet, it is but ends up being discarded each time as unimportant.
Dr. Debra Soh is a sex neuroscientist, the host of The Dr. Debra Soh Podcast, and the author of The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society.
