Texas Privacy Act seeks to remedy an 'uncivil right'

Haver

Guest Opinion by Kaeley Triller Haver

Earlier this year, both the NBA and the NFL made headline news with separate but equally hypocritical statements condemning Texas’ recently proposed privacy bills. The Texas Privacy Act (SB3 and HB 46), would ensure that government policies for bathroom and shower use in government buildings and public schools is based on the sex listed on a person’s birth certificate. It also prevents opposite sex participation in scholastic athletic competition, with some accommodation and exceptions.

Now even an NHL franchise, the Dallas Stars, is joining this “nondiscrimination” chorus.

In the midst of a national voyeurism epidemic, the Texas Privacy Act (SB 3 and HB 46) is a common-sense solution to a problem that shouldn’t even exist. But its opponents argue that it unfairly discriminates against transgender individuals. And apparently the NBA and NFL agree, having threatened to relocate their all-star games and big ticket events should the bill be enacted.

This issue is being framed as the new frontier of civil rights, abusing words like “discrimination” and “equality” to shame common sense privacy supporters (even some who were personally participated in the historic Civil Rights Movement) into silence.

But transgender people already have equal rights to use the exact same facilities as anyone else of the same biological sex. What they are demanding are special rights, and they’re demanding them at the expense of women and girls.

Let’s be honest: The NBA, the NFL, and the NHL would never exist without the ability to segregate by sex. Ever notice that the only females on the football field are wearing sparkly halter tops and waving pompoms? Have you ever seen a female on an NBA starting lineup? On an NBA roster at all? The same principle that excludes me from the men’s locker room huddle is what makes me determined to exclude men from my locker room showers: biological reality.

Anatomy discriminates. So do sexual assault statistics, athletic opportunities, and a litany of other inequalities for which sex-based protections exist in the first place. There’s an undeniable power differential between the sexes. Over 95 percent of registered sex offenders are males. (This includes some trans women.) Over 95 percent of their victims are females. Since Target enacted its foolish policy just 14 months ago, it has already been exploited at least 23 times. I thought “one is too many.”

States that fail to take preventative measures to protect the safety and privacy of their most vulnerable will inevitably find themselves responding to ordinances that strip said safety and privacy entirely.

Without a state law, local laws that allow men into girls bathrooms and showers will be expanded and exploited, often.

It is NOT a civil right for grown males to shower next to females at the gym. It is a civil right for females to say, “no.” Let me be clear: a violation of privacy is an injury, regardless of intent, especially for thousands of women, including rape survivors like me who have worked exceptionally hard to set unapologetic boundaries for our bodies. By 2017, surely females should be blazing new trails. Yet here we are instead -- pleading for the right to sex specific intimate spaces and sports teams.

What exactly are women’s rights if anyone can be a woman and claim them? What good is Title IX if a 6’7” male can take a women’s college basketball scholarship?

The big boys’ leagues don’t care about “discrimination.” It has become a popular buzzword they can hijack en route to great PR. It’s a symptom of the willful blindness of a culture that has long prioritized popularity over people, dollars over dignity, and wealth over women.

Not only is the emperor naked, but he’s also male, and the distinction matters. If he wants to wear stilettos in the privacy of his own home, that’s his prerogative. But insisting that there’s no harm in allowing him carte blanche access to the places where little girls get ready for swim team makes you complicit in their harm. And that puts you on the wrong side of history.

If Texas legislators want to take a strong stand against discrimination, they should probably start by ending discrimination against common sense and passing the Texas Privacy Act.

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Kaeley Triller Haver is a truth teller, envelope pusher, grace chaser, and Jesus-follower. She studied English at Northwest University and puts her education to use as the communications director of a local nonprofit organization. Of all the titles she's ever held, Kaeley considers "mom" the most significant. Though a resident of the Pacific Northwest, she has made frequent trips to Austin to testify on behalf of the Texas Privacy Act.

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