I have to disagree, at least to some extent, with Jonathan’s thoughtful post on the Great Bathroom Controversy.

For one thing, I don’t have much faith in polls on complicated questions such as this. They are too dependent on the exact questions asked and on the familiarity of those polled with the intricacies of the subject, which in most cases is virtually nil. The non-chattering classes have better things to do.

But I don’t really think this is about discriminating against transgender people. Those who have had sex reassignment surgery and live as the sex they were reassigned to will have no trouble under this law. They will simply go into the bathroom of their present sex and tend to nature, no questions asked. Even those who have not had surgery, but have had other treatments, such as hormones, etc., and dress appropriately, will have no problem.

In other words, this is a tempest in a teapot dressed up in the holy mantle of civil rights. The left just can’t let the civil rights crusade — one of the great triumphs of liberalism — go. The real civil rights movement dealt with very large groups of people who suffered genuine and often horrific discrimination for things they had no control over, such as race, sex, and sexual preference. But transgenderism is very, very rare; perhaps one in ten thousand. While I feel very sorry for people who find themselves in that situation and feel society should make all reasonable accommodation, this situation does not have its own version of Jim Crow. This is not about voting, serving in the armed forces, going to the school of one’s choice, or finding a job. It’s about bathrooms. And most of the people screaming loudest about genderism are using the issue purely for political purposes. It’s a truly pathetic end of a great movement in American democracy.

Rather, I think that this has to do with two groups. The first are perverts, peeping toms, etc., who might be all too happy to slip into a dress in order to get their jollies in a lady’s room. There are probably more of them than the transgendered. The second group is teenagers. Is it really too much to ask that teenage girls not be made very uncomfortable by having to shower after sports with someone who has male genitalia? (Teenage boys, on the other hand, might make the person with female genitalia using their showers very uncomfortable in those circumstances. Teenagers can be spectacularly cruel.)

I realize that once a civil rights jihad has been announced by the left, no one of any moral decency may disagree. But I do. I’m afraid I don’t see why 9,999 people have to be made uncomfortable and embarrassed so that one person is not. I expect the average voter will figure that out, once the uproar is ended and the courts take over. Average voters are often far more sensible than the chattering classes.