What is a bigger issue to you, rape or the NC bathroom issue?

[Anonymous]

The NCAA has pulled 7 events out of NC for the next year due the HB2 aka the transgender bathroom bill yet they did absolutely nothing about the rapes that occurred at Baylor University.

Thoughts? With everyone deciding what is cool to protest now, a lot of things that are not so comfortable to talk about are being brushed under the carpet.

http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/college-sports/baylorbears/2016/09/12/ncaa-moves-tournaments-north-carolina-state-gop-asks-concern-baylor-rape-victims

[Anonymous]

I do not know any transgender people (though I met one person in college. They seemed really nice).

I feel bad for them and all.

But I'm not sure it is as big an issue as it's made out to be in the media (and by that I mean all the media).

[Anonymous]

The bathroom thing is very trendy right now. Rape has been around for a long time, so it doesn't get as much press.

I don't think they need to pull events for either reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The bathroom thing is very trendy right now. Rape has been around for a long time, so it doesn't get as much press.

I don't think they need to pull events for either reason.

totally agree

[Anonymous]

Guess what? You don't have to rank what you care about most. Both are important issues.

[Anonymous]

I care about both. They are not unrelated either. Transgender people face higher than average rates of sexual assault, and forcing them to use the bathroom assigned to the gender they were assigned at birth increases the risk

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Guess what? You don't have to rank what you care about most. Both are important issues.

But the NCAA did rank them and chose to do something about one and not the other.

[Anonymous]

Are you implying that letting transgender people use the bathroom they feel more comfortable equals allowing rape? You conservatives are completely shameless.

[Anonymous]

Rape is a bigger issue to me, but I don't really see how the two things are really comparable (I'm not too familiar with the Baylor thing, though, because I don't really follow college sports, so please feel free to educate me about it if you think that will change my mind). In the bathroom case, you have a very transparent law passed by the government, and a private organization is deciding whether it still wants to conduct business in that state as a result; because of the nature of legislation, there is no chance that law is going to be changed unless public pressure mounts through these kinds of actions. In the Baylor case, it sounds like the college broke the law in its handling of sexual assault cases (although that's only an allegation right now, not actually proven yet, whereas the NC law undeniably exists), but that the matter is proceeding through legal channels that will hopefully provide the kind of correction that doesn't exist for the N.C. law. Further, my understanding is that the allegations against Baylor don't actually violate NCAA regulations, so for the NCAA to do anything, it would mean punishing the college for conduct that wasn't actually prohibited by the organization; that's not generally a precedent that anyone wants to set. Of course, you can argue that the NCAA should amend its regulations to make these types of things actionable going forward, but making that apply retroactively doesn't usually square with most people's sense of fairness.

[Anonymous]

The whole thing is ridiculous, Baylor rapes are much more serious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Guess what? You don't have to rank what you care about most. Both are important issues.

The analysis of it is more complicated than that. Yes, they're both important issues. But there it's undeniable that the media likes to focus on controversial issues rather than than root causes.

When celebrities and corporations are boycotting North Carolina because of the bathroom issue, why aren't they also mentioning the deplorable revocation of worker's rights? We know that the biggest risk factors of harm for transgender people are homelessness and unemployment/underemployment that often results in turning to prostitution for survival, which staggeringly multiplies the risk for harm.

So why the sole focus on the bathroom issue (which again, I'm not saying is unimportant) and not the issues that affect day-to-day survival? Because the bathroom issue is controversial, trendy, and a cheap way to declare your progressiveness (or on the opposite side, conservatism) without actually supporting root change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rape is a bigger issue to me, but I don't really see how the two things are really comparable (I'm not too familiar with the Baylor thing, though, because I don't really follow college sports, so please feel free to educate me about it if you think that will change my mind). In the bathroom case, you have a very transparent law passed by the government, and a private organization is deciding whether it still wants to conduct business in that state as a result; because of the nature of legislation, there is no chance that law is going to be changed unless public pressure mounts through these kinds of actions. In the Baylor case, it sounds like the college broke the law in its handling of sexual assault cases (although that's only an allegation right now, not actually proven yet, whereas the NC law undeniably exists), but that the matter is proceeding through legal channels that will hopefully provide the kind of correction that doesn't exist for the N.C. law. Further, my understanding is that the allegations against Baylor don't actually violate NCAA regulations, so for the NCAA to do anything, it would mean punishing the college for conduct that wasn't actually prohibited by the organization; that's not generally a precedent that anyone wants to set. Of course, you can argue that the NCAA should amend its regulations to make these types of things actionable going forward, but making that apply retroactively doesn't usually square with most people's sense of fairness.

I just want to amend that I phrased it badly when I said at the outset that rape was the bigger issue, I started with a different thought and edited poorly. They are both significant issues to me, I don't rank them in my mind because I don't feel like they are issues we should be choosing between. We should be choosing for all people to be treated with fundamental fairness and justice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guess what? You don't have to rank what you care about most. Both are important issues.

The analysis of it is more complicated than that. Yes, they're both important issues. But there it's undeniable that the media likes to focus on controversial issues rather than than root causes.

When celebrities and corporations are boycotting North Carolina because of the bathroom issue, why aren't they also mentioning the deplorable revocation of worker's rights? We know that the biggest risk factors of harm for transgender people are homelessness and unemployment/underemployment that often results in turning to prostitution for survival, which staggeringly multiplies the risk for harm.

So why the sole focus on the bathroom issue (which again, I'm not saying is unimportant) and not the issues that affect day-to-day survival? Because the bathroom issue is controversial, trendy, and a cheap way to declare your progressiveness (or on the opposite side, conservatism) without actually supporting root change.

Sometimes in political movements, you have to go for the low-hanging fruit. Focusing on the bathroom laws and how ridiculous they are is a way to get people educated on the mistreatment of transgender people generally, and to build support for overturning an absurd law. Once you've got people educated and engaged, it's easier to then direct that momentum toward changes that might be more challenging to convince people on, like employment, where many people still grate against the idea of telling business owners who they have to hire (which I realize isn't really what we're talking about here, but that's how opponents of transgender rights portray it).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The whole thing is ridiculous, Baylor rapes are much more serious.

Link please. Or they didn't happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I care about both. They are not unrelated either. Transgender people face higher than average rates of sexual assault, and forcing them to use the bathroom assigned to the gender they were assigned at birth increases the risk

Around 50% of women report sexual violence other than rape during their lifetime, and 18% have experienced rape or attempted rape. 50% of transgender people report sexual violence other than rape during their lifetime, and 21% have experienced rape or attempted rape in their lifetime. There's not a big difference.

The high murder rates of trans women overall and the murder rates of women overall per 100,000 are the same as of 2014.

The higher rates of murder are mostly transgender women who work as prostitutes (just like prostitutes overall face astronomically higher murder rates than the general population). Bathroom laws will not make any significant impact on the sexual assault rate. To decrease these rates in a meaningful way, we should fight for legislation that improves the protection and rights of prostitutes, legislation that decriminalizes prostitution (but continues to hold solicitation of a prostitute or pimping illegal), offers prostitutes economic/emotional/legal support for exiting the industry. Domestic violence is also a significant factor that should be targeted for reducing violence against trans people.

The issue is violence against women. The issue is sexual exploitation and degradation for profit and pleasure. Care about bathroom access, yes, of course. But focusing on it and believing that it will decrease sexual assault obfuscates the real issues.