The following is a letter to the editor from Paul Cully. Letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect the views of WestfordCAT or its Board of Directors. To submit your own letter, e-mail asylvia@westfordcat.org
Mr. Galvin, in his letter in the WestfordCAT Online May 24, 2016 edition, expresses concern that a male, falsely identifying himself as a female, could use a women’s bathroom or locker-room to commit a sexual assault. He further expresses concern that pubescent females would be “forced” to share women’s facilities with transgender persons, resulting in damaging psychological impact. As I search media sources for recorded instances of transgender persons committing rape, or traumatizing other persons by exposing themselves, I find none, although the media abounds with reports of these acts by disturbed heterosexual males.
Why are we not equally concerned about female persons, falsely identifying themselves as male, utilizing a male bathroom or locker-room to commit a sexual assault? And how is it that pubescent women would be “forced”? Don’t facilities for females contain stalls with doors and showers with curtains, much as the facilities for males do, and wouldn’t that provide privacy and a modicum of security for all users of the facilities? Finally, would any law prevent, by itself, these acts from occurring?
Additionally, to further separate persons by providing separate bathroom or locker-room facilities, beyond what now exists, as some other than Mr. Galvin have suggested, singles them out and identifies them as “different from us”. This is the very essence of discrimination and the antithesis of understanding and caring.
I am unconvinced that these expressed concerns speak to an existing problem. My view is that we should not address differences among peoples that merely serve to divide us into factions, over imagined concerns. Equal treatment of all, regardless of sexual preference, religious beliefs, ethnicity, political persuasion, or any other differentiator, should be our goal. As I see it, that is what common courtesy and common sense are.
