"The Bathroom Wars"

That's the title of a characteristically thoughtful post by Perry Dane, who is, as many of us here at MOJ know, a highly respected scholar of law and religion.  The post begins with this:

So, on the one hand, …. I find myself befuddled by the North Carolina “bathroom law” and other extreme responses to transgender rights and the assertion of transgender identity.  I say this as someone who generally appreciates the force of conservative views of sex and sexuality even when I disagree with them.  For example, though I fully support same-sex marriage, I am on record arguing that the debate was more complex than partisans on either side wanted to admit.

But the transgender question is different.

And the post ends with this:

The bathroom fights are unnecessary (though perhaps explainable, like so much else these days, as symbolic skirmishes in our hyper-polarized political war of all against all.)  Traditionalists who write laws that insist, for example, that even bearded transsexual men who happen to have been born as anatomic females should use women’s bathrooms, are just being silly, not to mention oppressive and unjust.  And most of the country is more than happy to respect the individual rights of transgender and other folks.  But the current fight is also both a harbinger of, and a distraction from, a more profound debate down the road.  The deeper challenge lurking here, going well beyond individual rights, is to our collective identity as human beings.

The entire post, here, is well worth considering.

nd, …. I find myself befuddled by the North Carolina “bathroom law” and other extreme responses to transgender rights and the assertion of transgender identity.  I say this as someone who generally appreciates the force of conservative views of sex and sexuality even when I disagree with them.  For example, though I fully support same-sex marriage, I am on record arguing that the debate was more complex than partisans on either side wanted to admit.

But the transgender question is different.

I do understand some basic premises of the “traditionalist” position. 

- See more at: http://www.religiousleftlaw.com/#sthash.9xb8i67L.dpuf

So, on the one hand, …. I find myself befuddled by the North Carolina “bathroom law” and other extreme responses to transgender rights and the assertion of transgender identity.  I say this as someone who generally appreciates the force of conservative views of sex and sexuality even when I disagree with them.  For example, though I fully support same-sex marriage, I am on record arguing that the debate was more complex than partisans on either side wanted to admit.

But the transgender question is different.

I do understand some basic premises of the “traditionalist” position. 

- See more at: http://www.religiousleftlaw.com/#sthash.9xb8i67L.dpuf

So, on the one hand, …. I find myself befuddled by the North Carolina “bathroom law” and other extreme responses to transgender rights and the assertion of transgender identity.  I say this as someone who generally appreciates the force of conservative views of sex and sexuality even when I disagree with them.  For example, though I fully support same-sex marriage, I am on record arguing that the debate was more complex than partisans on either side wanted to admit.

But the transgender question is different.

I do understand some basic premises of the “traditionalist” position. 

- See more at: http://www.religiousleftlaw.com/#sthash.9xb8i67L.dpuf