Transgender people who don’t have the option to use a separate facility need to just “suck it up and deal with things” rather than use a restroom that matches their gender identity, a prominent Republican consultant wrote this week.
Bill Greener III, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee whose consulting firm represents the RNC and a number of Republican members of Congress, wrote in an Inside Sources column on Tuesday that trans people also need to understand that “white males of European descent who are heterosexual actually encounter situations where we get treated like crap. I can vouch for this. Some would call this life.”
Instead, he complained, trans people are making “everyone in the world … turn themselves inside out to make sure that [they] never feel badly.”
A person can be entirely sympathetic to fair treatment, strongly oppose actual discrimination, and generally be a fair-minded individual without being compelled to conclude that more than 95 percent of Americans ought to be made to accommodate any and all demands from 0.3 percent of the population.
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For a large number of people I consider reasonable, all of this becomes a tad absurd. People thinking they are cats does not make them cats, say we. Maybe you are entitled to think of yourself in any way you want. That, however, should not obligate everyone in the world to turn themselves inside out to make sure that you never feel badly.
By the way, just for the record, white males of European descent who are heterosexual actually encounter situations where we get treated like crap. I can vouch for this. Some would call this life.
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In a broader context this debate should focus on just how much accommodation is reasonable to expect, much less to demand as a matter of a legal right. When is it that more than nine in 10 Americans will be allowed to say: “We don’t hate you. We even understand and agree you deserve not to be discriminated against. However, this has become an argument that centers on personal comfort levels. You need to deal with being uncomfortable. It is more fair, more logical, and more reasonable than asking all the rest of us to adjust to you. Where possible, we will attempt to reduce this discomfort by providing separate facilities. However, a good deal of the time, you are just going to have to suck it up and deal with things.”
