North Carolina is at it again. This time for signing into law the so-called "bathroom bill" that requires trans and gender non-conforming persons to use public bathrooms that are consistent with their birth gender, instead of their gender expression.
Although this has been unleashing a firestorm of protest in social media and elsewhere, we're afraid that other states might follow suit. One the one hand, we see this legislation as an opportunity for the LGBT civil-rights movement to live up to its promise regarding trans* folks. On the other hand, we worry that this might only throw blue-collar and working-class queers under the bus.
Consider the predominant internet response: various memes depict a public bathroom containing several people whose perceived gender is obvious. Uniformly, these people are white, and typically they're coded as southern rednecks through fashion or context cues. A person of visibly different gender stands among them, calling attention to the silliness of the law via visual common sense with an edge of sexual threat.
James P. Sheffield, whose tweet initiated one of these memes, followed up with a thoughtful analysis of his own image ( see usuncut.com/resistance/north-carolina-anti-lgbt-bathroom-law/ ), acknowledging where the real risks lie. As a transman, if he adheres to this law, he stands a good chance of getting shot in the ladies room for fear that he's a sexual predator. Further, those who are persons of color and/or poor, without access to safe private bathrooms, may be even more vulnerable.
We think that Sheffield's points are all good, and he's a mensch for making them, but absent from the public response to North Carolina's bathroom bill is that this is a class issue. When we're talking about fear in the bathroomfear in public spaces generallywe're really talking about fear of the person whose gender is perceived as dangerous. Often that person is poor or working-class. It's about the perception of "the other"what you see, not what you get.
Truck drivers and other blue-collar workers, whether trans* or not, whether queer or not, are likely targets for harassment and prosecution under this legislation. In doing oral histories of truck drivers and steelworkers, Anne Balay, co-writer of this column, has heard from countless transwomen, lesbians, AND straight women who get "sirred," and who get driven from bathrooms ( that are consistent with their gender expression ) by other users, or by uniformed authority personnel ( who, ironically may fall into the class that we are talking about ). Working class trans* and gender non-conforming persons were shunned long before legislation this week that legitimized this practice. Many female truckers who we know try to limit their trips to the bathroom by fairly drastic meansthey conserve fluid intake and risk ( or get ) UTIs and kidney stones because they have learned, through experience, that bathrooms aren't safe spaces. This adds to the other stresses that are part of being a truck driver or other marginal workers in this current, neoliberal climate.
Trans* bodies are clearly targeted by this legislation and we as a community need to get immediately and strongly behind protesting and reversing it. Sex panic is good theater, and in an election year, politicians are effectively mobilizing public anxiety about the increasing visibility of sex and gender non-conforming bodies.
Our concern is with identifying and protecting the bodies most likely to pay the price for this legislationpoor and working-class transfolk who may be easier to visually identify. Blue-collar jobs often call for butch body styles; marginal workers don't have medical insurance or time to make sleuth identity possible ( and often don't want to ); and working-class folks are often out in the world interacting with the public in settings that make them vulnerable.
Their bodies are on the linethat's what being blue-collar means. We encourage the larger queer community to keep them in mind as we move forward in our opposition to this and other regressive legislation.
Anne Balay, Ph.D., is a visiting assistant professor at Haverford College, the author of Steel Closets: Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Steelworkers ( University of North Carolina Press, 2014 ), and a former long-haul trucker.
Mona Shattell, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, is a professor and chairperson of the department of community, systems, and mental health nursing at Rush University, Chicago, IL, and former Public Voices Fellow with The OpEd Project.