North Carolina’s recent law decision banning transgender people from utilizing the bathroom of the gender identify as has been both praised and protested by the citizens of North Carolina and other states in America. It has been deemed as unconstitutional and discriminatory toward a group of individuals that want to simply and safely use a restroom. But despite the obvious backlash, conservatives in other states have already begun following in North Carolina’s footsteps and passing similar laws such as in Mississippi and Alabama.

Oxford, Alabama had passed laws that were not only discriminatory toward transgendered individuals, but made using the bathroom of the gender they identify as a criminal offense that could result in jail time. Council members rescinded this law soon after realizing that it violated federal civil rights laws. Because of a situations like this one, North Carolina’s lawmakers have labeled using the bathroom that doesn’t correspond with your gender assigned at birth as a civil violation rather than a criminal one. However, they have not been able to decide on a civil penalty for anyone who is to enter the “wrong” restroom.

The issues with this ban are innumerable, but lets touch on the fact that no one thought it through to any extent. Even with this law passed in North Carolina, law enforcement have admitted that they haven’t a clue as to how they plan to tell transgendered people from cisgendered people at public restrooms. So when a transgendered man walks into a woman’s bathroom in order to adhere to the law, and this man is mistaken for a cisgendered man and the police remove them for appearing male, what then? This scenario is extremely likely considering how well many transgendered people pass for the gender they identify as. There are people you would look at and never assume in a million years that they are trans. You can’t actually expect there to be police officers posted up at every bathroom to prevent certain people from coming in, making a ban such as this entirely pointless.

The suggestion of unisex bathrooms has been considered as a solution to the situation. There are plenty of public areas where unisex or family bathrooms exist and are used regularly. Some places only have unisex bathrooms. But if we’re so okay with unisex bathrooms, why does the idea of a person who was born the opposite sex using the bathroom of the gender they identify as scare us so much?

Our normal separation of bathrooms by gender is meant to keep people as comfortable and as safe as possible. People fear ending up in a situation where they may be watched, harassed or assaulted while in the closed-off privacy of a public bathroom. People are afraid that allowing transgendered people to enter the bathroom of their choice, will result in people who are not transgendered to enter the bathroom claiming they are to do something wrong. Little do they seem to realize even if we allow people to use the bathroom of their choice, the risk is relatively  the same.

But since we’re so concerned about safety, what about the safety of those transgendered people? What about transgendered children? Violence toward the transgendered community is far more likely than violence against cisgendered people.  A transgender woman in a men’s room is far more likely to be assaulted than anyone in a woman’s bathroom by a trans woman.

If you’re allowing your five year old child to go to the a bathroom alone in a public area, you’re a bad parent. If you support legislation based on fear mongering, your and even worse politician.

This issue is eerily similar to the same-sex marriage debate our country was having not long ago. Now that we are learning about different people with different lifestyles and choices, we’re afraid of change. But change is a necessary part of growing and learning. North Carolina’s choice to pass this anti-LGBT law before even considering what the penalty for violating it is, just highlights the fear in their eyes. Even conservative presidential candidate Donald Trump sees the obvious problems with this ban. “There have been very few complaints the way bathrooms are set up now.” he says “ Creating new bathrooms for transgenders would be discriminatory. It should be left the way it is.”