With bathroom bills, the state is telling people who they are

Bathroom bills. The phrase’s bouncy, alliterative nature, plus just the word bathroom, makes it somehow seem light, frivolous . . .  oh, it’s just about the bathroom.

It’s not. And the bathroom conversation is not a new one. Massachusetts legislated sex-segregated restrooms in 1887. Most states enacted similar laws by the 1940s. Bathroom laws such as the 1887 one empowered the Jim Crow South’s legislative argument for keeping (black) men from using such public space, in fear they would prey on white women.

Those championing bathroom bills in North Carolina and seven other states also claim to be interested in protecting the privacy and safety of those in public restrooms, specifically women and girls. The bills’ defenders claim that if transgender people were allowed to use the restroom of their choice—were allowed to claim to be a man or a woman and to use the corresponding restroom—then men would go into women’s restrooms and prey upon girls and women.