This is supposedly what a transgender woman looks like. Or at least that's what Media Research Center's Dan Joseph seems to think. You see, Mr. Joseph created a video to show the danger inherent in the new California law created to allow California transgender students equal access to facilities and programs.
In the video Joseph hangs out in front of a women's locker room, wearing men's clothing, with a full goatee and calls himself Dan, while claiming to women passing by that he is "a transgender." Because, you know, that's what all transgender women do.
JOSEPH: Excuse me. Are you going into the locker room?
WOMAN: Yes.
JOSEPH: My name is Dan. I'm a transgender. So that means I have the man parts but inside I feel more like a woman. I was just wondering, is it okay if I go in there with you in there and change and shower and stuff? Just because I don't really feel, like, comfortable in the men's area. It's just weird. Is that okay with you?
He stands there acting like a pervert and wonders if people would think it strange?
Oh, he does moderate his voice some…affecting what I imagine he thinks gay men sound like.
You might note that a goodly portion of the people he interviewed have no problem with transpeople having equal access until he tries to gin up their concern.
His impersonation is a perfect example of everything that's wrong with how conservative media imagine transgender people.
Unlike Joseph's character, most people who are actually transgender make efforts to present and appear in a way that matches their gender identity. Transgender women don't typically walk around in men's clothing will full faces of facial hair. They don't typically refer to themselves as "a transgender." And they certainly don't stand outside of women's restrooms announcing themselves and asking passerbys for permission to "go in there... and change and shower and stuff."
For most transgender people, being outed in public - and especially in bathroom settings - can frequently result in harassment, discrimination, and even violence. Being identified as transgender can invite intense transphobic mistreatment, which is why "passing" - being regarded as a member of the sex that matches your gender identity - can be so important for many transgender people.
--Media Matters
Mr. Joseph's goal, of course , is not to depict a transwoman. He says it himself:
You mean like a guy who just wants to see some naked chicks going, "oh I'm transgendered, I need to go to the girls' locker room." I mean, that's what I would do.
Told you he was a pervert. And while I'm at it, let me point out that Fox News' Bill O'Reilly and Greg Gutfeld have said the same thing: They would pretend to be transgender to sneak into women's restrooms and locker rooms.
It is evident that the problem here is not transpeople gaining equal access. It's the potential behavior of conservative male "news reporters."
Right-wing media outlets have a long history of promoting "bathroom panic" myths about transgender people, but they've never made any sense, nor have they been supported by any hard evidence.
That's because straight, cisgender men - and especially boys - just aren't that interested in dressing like women, identifying as women, and presenting themselves as women over a long period of time just to sneak a peek into a women's locker room. And if a man really is that dead set on getting into a women's locker room, a lack of protections for transgender people probably isn't going to hold him back.
I suggest that conservative news people should be forced to use specific dedicated restrooms away from both men and women. We'd all be safer.
There are no real world examples to support their horror story. They have to become the horror story in order to prove its credibility.