His, Hers, & Potty Politics

His, Hers, & Potty Politics

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

May 11, 2016

The Obama administration, via Attorney General Loretta Lynch, is once again attempting to micromanage the lives of all Americans through ridiculous lawsuits pertaining to potty politics.

This need not be a lengthy screed, but as is typical of the Obama administration, they are literally making this a federal case by suing the state of North Carolina, thus forcing the Tar Heel State to countersue the federal government. Deigning to compare the current kerfuffle of alleged discriminatory practices in North Carolina pertaining to proper bathroom choices to the Civil Rights Movement and Jim Crow Laws is an insult to all who paid the ultimate price fighting for the rights and dignity of G-d given equality.

To tell biological males that they must use the men’s room; and to tell biological females they must use the women’s room is not subverting any of their civil rights. They are not being denied accommodations the way blacks were denied seats at lunch counters, lodging in hotels, housing opportunities in certain neighborhoods, jobs, equality on the ball field, battlefield, or in the classroom.

If Phil wants to jump into a dress and slap on some lipstick and call himself Phyllis, that’s his business. But when he decides to sashay into the ladies room to do his business, then it becomes all of our business. To reference a House episode where the good doctor divided two groups of potential team members into “danglers” and “non-danglers,” so too should our bathroom facilities remain divided. Just because a man isn’t feeling particularly manly today doesn’t give him the right to use the women’s room and make others feel uncomfortable and revert back to the men’s room the next day. Those men and women who complete gender reassignment surgery should be permitted use of the facilities of their new gender.

A reasonable, not necessarily simple, solution is to have a men’s room, a women’s room, and a single stall facility for those unable to figure out whether they are in Column A or Column B. Many large shopping facilities, malls and factory outlets, for example, already offer a third option called a family changing room designed for parents changing babies. This is a single stall option that can be utilized by anyone – one at a time. While this is clearly a reasonable solution, it may not be simple. Smaller businesses and service establishments such as restaurants or offices may not be spatially equipped to expand and install a third bathroom option. In those cases, danglers must use the men’s room and non-danglers must use the women’s room. This is a matter of biology, not feelings. Biology and gender are not debatable. We are as G-d created us.

The more prickly concern are the locker room and shower situations, which are larger more unwieldy spaces in businesses such as gyms and schools. A separate changing facility can be provided, but a private shower becomes infinitely challenging, thus the dangler/non-dangler proposition. There is a genuine concern about opposite genders simultaneously sharing shower facilities, especially in schools, where this has already become an issue. Shockingly there are actually people supporting the right of a student who merely identifies as the opposite sex to be permitted use of the shower of his/her choice. It is this brand of laissez-faire permissiveness lending itself to inappropriate interlopers taking advantage of a situation by committing exploitive acts against the unsuspecting and naïve. There is something extremely wrong here as it speaks to the continuing decay of the moral fabric of American society as well as the shrinking acceptance of Judeo-Christian values in this country.

The bigger picture is the legal overreach by the Obama administration as it seeks to usurp state law thus ignoring and bypassing the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which states that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Each state should have the right to determine its own policies. This should not be made a 14^th Amendment case either, as this is not an equal protection issue. (“…nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.) No one is being denied bathroom facilities.

While potty politics has become Obama’s latest fascination and priority, infinitely more paramount issues such as illegal immigration, securing the border, sanctuary cities, defeating ISIS, a growing heroine epidemic, and a failing public school system are relegated to the back burner. It’s time for Obama to get off the pot and concern himself with something important, like where he put his putter.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.