How often do you go you the bathroom? Presumably a couple times a day. It's probably a quick process that causes zero problems. What about transgender people? What doesn’t seem like an issue to some people is an everyday concern for others. Current laws in some states ban transgender people from using the bathroom that aren’t their given sex. Transgender people should be allowed to use the bathroom according to the to the gender they identify as. 

Statistics have shown that “97% of transgender people get mistreated at work for being trans.” Why is society making it even more difficult with laws on bathrooms, when transgender people have had it hard enough? One of the critical topics at the moment is transgender teens. 

Atherton High School in Louisville has become the first school in Kentucky to formally endorse a policy for transgender students. This policy allowed for several trans teens to come out as transgender at Atherton High because they finally felt safe enough to do so. Many transgender people fall victim to depression and suicidal thoughts. A bathroom bill could affect everyone in different ways. It can cause a transmale’s dysphoria (dissatisfaction with current life) to increase when he is surrounded by people telling him he is a girl and to use the women's bathroom. It can make a trans person feel out of place when they have to use the unisex bathroom and everyone is staring “It speaks to all of us who have ever been made to feel inferior...like somehow we just don’t fit in.” Don’t let society add to the continuous dark thoughts of a transgender person. 

There are many who oppose policies such as those that give transgender people rights to use the bathroom according to their identity. Theses people believe it is completely disregarding their privacy. There has also been several debates that if trans people were allowed to use the restroom for their identity, there could be the problem of perverts taking advantage. The fear is that with just saying I’m transgender anyone could walk into the opposite sex’s bathroom, even when they’re not actually trans. However; this problem can happen at any time with no connection to transgender people and it has happened before the topic transgender had been even discussed. “There is not yet any anecdotal evidence that trans-friendly rules have been abused by predators, or that incidents of violence or sexual assault have increased,” says Jeffrey Kluger from TIME magazine. Proving that perverts have always existed and a bathroom bill will only stop transgender people from walking in, not the perverts. 

If this is really such an issue, then why not create bathrooms that feel safer. Build stalls that go to the ceiling and floor and put urinals in stalls, so perverts don’t have a chance to begin with. Before you say that this solution will not work or is too costly, I have seen bathrooms as these in many stores and I don’t think you want to state that you put cost before an individual's rights. 

Recently many transgender people have filed lawsuits expressing that a bathroom bill and current laws are a violation of their civil rights. That laws such as these discriminate against transgender people. “This isn’t a states rights issue, it’s a civil rights issue.” Forcing a trans person to use the bathroom according to their given sex strips them of their identity and isolates them. Consider all those times you shared bathrooms on a camping trip, in co-ed dorms, or was allowed to use the other sex bathroom because the bathroom was too full. Rules change in different situations, even when the base of the idea is the same. There is no need to debate on this issue when everyone does the same thing in the bathroom. Go in, do you business, and get out. Let transgender people do the same, but in the bathroom they identify as. Let them feel like they belong.   

My name is Robin and I am transgender. Listen because I speak for all my trans brothers and sisters. We are people, not threats. 2016 has been a year of many changes, please future president let 2017 be better.

- Robin