Hart: The Texas two-step into the transgender bathroom non-issue

The sign for a gender-neutral restroom is in the new library on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
The sign for a gender-neutral restroom is in the new library on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

View other columns by Ron Hart

Hey Texas, here's a Prince of an idea: No matter the new bathroom laws, let's potty like it's 1999.

The manufactured debate on same-sex restroom use rights now has Texas grappling with the same tar baby that North Carolina fumbled. Usually, through a series of procedural machinations, stupid bills in Texas are sent to committee to die. But rival Republicans and the socially right-wing lieutenant governor dragged the more sensible and moderate GOP governor into a vote on this stupid issue.

First, transgendered men who identify as such are only about .2 percent of the population. They have always been about two-tenths of one percent, and there have been almost no issues of them molesting girls by using the wrong bathroom. This is a solution in search of a problem.

Second, low-information folks conflate transgender people with pedophiles. Pedophiles are a different union. They lurk in your schools, churches and neighborhoods. Nothing stops them from going into a bathroom. But say what you will about pedophiles, they always slow down while driving through school zones - but they are not wearing dresses.

Third, the GOP supposedly espouses limited government and fewer laws. Another law on the books, one that has police checking birth certificates at bathroom doors? Really?

As in most bad laws (like the one in North Carolina), the federal government immediately wants a piece. Obama ordered North Carolina and Texas to mandate which bathroom the transgendered can use. So if you dig irony, our first black president told Southerners which bathrooms they can use.

So the feds got involved. I suggest they name the transgender bathrooms at the FBI Building after J. Edgar Hoover but, given our education system, that irony would be lost, too.

Allowing the transgendered in Southern public bathrooms is dangerous. There is a one-in-three chance someone is cooking meth in there.

With a $20 trillion national debt, are we really going to focus on bathrooms? If you want a new law, take 10 existing laws off the books.

I am a big states'-rights person. If your state is viewed as anti-gay or discriminatory, it will probably lose business and jobs.

It is funny how, for Democrats, LGBTQ civil rights issues are suddenly the most pressing of our time - behind proving that Donald Trump is a Russian spy. Keep in mind Barack Obama and Bill Clinton ran both times opposing gay marriage. LGBTQ activists have finally convinced Bill Clinton to see things their way, probably after sending two of their hottest L's to convince him.

Coming late to issues is the Democrats' legacy. Republicans freed the slaves, founded the NAACP and overcame Democrat opposition to pass the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s. Nixon started the EPA. Showing up late to good ideas and making them worse are Democrat traditions. Hollow gestures define Democrats. Thomas Jefferson freed his slaves in his will.

Members of the left flail around creating "tolerance" issues and making themselves the heroes in their own narrative. We have the most tolerant country in the world, yet during his secretary of state confirmation hearing, senators tried to ask Rex Tillerson his views on transgender bathroom access. Tillerson said that, while heading Exxon, he would allow transgenders the same key, with a two-by-four tied to it, that got them into the same nasty Exxon gas station bathrooms as straight folk.

I am seasoned with the Scripture of the South. I understand that this is a biblical issue for some and just plain creepy for others. But religion and Jesus are about tolerance and love.

Remember the "turn the other cheek" manner in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. handled issues. By his religious beliefs, he set an example which made others re-examine theirs. His "I Have a Dream" speech spoke to the transgender issue. He would say today, "Judge a man by the quality of his character, not the contents of his walk-in closet."

Contact Ron Hart, a syndicated op-ed humorist, author and TV/radio commentator, mat Ron@RonaldHart.com or Twitter @RonaldHart.

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