Dear Phil Clark,
I don’t recall ever saying that bathrooms are fun. Fun? Bathrooms are notoriously the site of violence toward women and queers (as I stated in my previous Wespeak). I am not sorry that in your narrow-minded understanding of violence in your little bubble of privilege you can’t possibly foresee of an incident where a bathroom would be unsafe.
I am NOT speaking about “an ignorant minority.” In the wake of events like Take Back the Night (an event I participated in), we are once more reminded that violence toward all people (although clearly disproportionately toward women, queer and trans folks) is far too common in the world we live in.
Such simple things as words on bathroom walls are warning signs of the greater violence going on everywhere. If people don’t take a stand on these “small” incidents, the hatred, stereotypes and prejudices from which they arrive are allowed to simmer, burn and run rampant through our society. We live in a world where nearly 50 percent of the country seems to be under the impression that the man who may be our next president is a terrorist simply because a white man told us so. We live in a world where people we love are raped, assaulted and killed every day, simply because they were walking down the street, look a little bit gay, look like they’re using the “wrong” bathroom or because someone simply has decided to hate them.
So, Phil, I am not “persecut[ing] a larger group of people.” Which “larger group” would you be speaking of? The small minority of people — predominantly straight, non-trans and/or white — in positions of power? These are not people who are in any position to feel even slightly threatened by me or anybody else who acknowledges hatred. In fact, these are the only people who do not face any threat in a public restroom.
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