This article by Emily Bazelon was an interesting read. Throughout the article she seems to preach on the importance of accommodation. Early on in the summary she explains that society has taught us that men belong in the men’s bathroom and women belong in the women’s bathroom. There was never really a discussion on which bathroom transgender people should use. Bazelon goes on to say that there are still many people that are truly against mixing different genders when it comes to using bathrooms and have even gone as far to make a “bathroom ordinance”. Bazelon makes the argument that some people feel this way because having someone with different genitalia in the same bathroom as you will ruin the common culture of being in a men’s bathroom or being in a women’s bathroom. With all of these protests that have gone on there has yet to be a final answer on where transgenders should use the bathroom.
Bazelon, provides a story in which an Illinois high school transgender student was forced to change in a distant room across the hall because there were a lot of privacy concerns that came along with changing with female students. Her parents later filed a civil rights complaint asking the district of the school if she could change with the female students. This is where the idea of a privacy curtain came into play. Of course, the privacy curtain can’t just be used for the transgender student, but for all of the girls. This is where Bazelon goes on to state the importance of accommodating.
Bazelon, gives many different definitions for the word ‘accommodation’, but the main idea in her definitions was to allow people of all kinds to be able to fit in without having to feel different or left out. She cites many different times in history where people have had to make accommodations and how the end result was something positive. In the case of transgender people, Bazelon feels like they are the ones doing all of the accommodating and does not think that’s right. Bazelon expresses that in order for us to coexist as a civil society accommodations have to be made for all people including transgenders. Bazelon’s hopes are that in the future we will be past this and that it won’t even be a topic of discussion.
