The right-wing’s aversion to facts has long been documented (with facts). From denial of climate change and evolution to false claims about Planned Parenthood to a refusal to acknowledge the improving economy, the one thing that is consistent with current conservative thought is an aversion to truth when it contradicts their already-held views.

cartoon by Kevin Siers

The latest involves sexual identity. Let’s face it, they’ve never quite understood sex anyway — probably due to their religious views. But now they’re convinced that children are in danger because of something that has been going on forever and has never caused a problem before: Trans people using the bathroom for the sex they identify with.

Why is this suddenly an issue? They’ve been doing this for generations and no one can find a single example of a trans person abusing anyone in a bathroom. (Oh, there’s probably an example out there somewhere that someone will eventually find; statistically speaking, it’s possible. But one out of how many billions of bathroom visits? You’re much more likely to be abused by a Catholic priest or a Republican Congressman* but no one is writing laws preventing them from using bathrooms.)

That doesn’t stop the right from screaming about it and pointing out examples of men who have abused children in bathrooms — men who do not identify as women in the slightest.

The fact is (Oh there I go again, relying on “facts”), chances are you’ve shared a bathroom with a trans person already but didn’t know it because — here’s the key — the person identifies as the proper sex for that bathroom. They look like the sex they identify with. That’s the point.

If you abuse someone in a bathroom or harass them or peek at them, you’re committing a crime and it doesn’t matter whether you’re trans or not. These laws trying to discriminate against trans people do absolutely nothing to stop that. Their only purpose is to once again make sex that conservatives don’t understand illegal.

*That was another fact, just in case you didn’t recognize it.