Jess Stirba wrote an article from a first person perspective on how this directly affects her as well as other transgender folks. This is my take on the matter.
For those of you who have missed the recent controversy, North Carolina has recently passed a law that essentially says:
- The use of bathrooms in public agencies is restricted to what is assigned as an individual’s “biological sex” as “is stated on a person’s birth certificate.”
- It restricts the use of school restrooms and locker rooms which are not single-occupancy to whatever matches the “biological sex” that is “stated on a person’s birth certificate.”
- All local laws have to reflect this state ruling, or are superseded by state laws.
- Individuals cannot bring civil action against anyone enforcing these laws.
- These laws are not discriminatory (somehow).
Anyone unfamiliar with what this has to do with MTG should note that later this month there is a Grand Prix in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Magic: The Gathering community has many professional players and judges who identify as transgender. The issue for them will be one of two things:
- When I need to use a bathroom, where do I have to go?
- If I use the bathroom reserved for the gender as I was born but not as I identify, what kind of danger or harassment could I potentially experience?
I know what many people are likely thinking: “Why do I care?” or “Doesn’t affect me.” The latter is the category I would get lumped into, as a cis male. Stop right there for a second though, just because it “doesn’t affect me” directly does not mean that I do not care. Sure, lucky me! I was born as the gender that I identify as and that I feel comfortable as but that is not the situation that everyone is in. This recent “legal discrimination” of a minority group means that I would have to cancel plans WITH Jess to go and play in GP Charlotte WITHOUT her punishes both of us for her free will to live as she identifies (we didn’t have plans, but I certainly would have enjoyed every minute of the trip if we did).
Personally I am not very familiar with North Carolina, but there is a lot of history there and I would hate knowing that I could never experience it with a close friend for the fact that they don’t identify as the “biological sex as stated on their birth certificate.” Now if a trip was planned I have to cancel because a good friend of mine is told, you have to potentially endanger and inconvenience yourself every time you would like to use a restroom—you know? That perfectly normal and natural human function that everyone does regularly each and every day, throughout the day, multiple times a day. Jess is by no means at fault for this ruling and the fact that she like many others will have to cancel their plans, lose nonrefundable deposits made on hotel rooms and miss out on a great hobby because people are paranoid about things they don’t understand. In addition there are talented judges, organizers and more who identify as trans who will not be there to help run this event and keep it at it’s best. And those are only if I’m thinking selfishly and how it will affect ME, nevermind how it will affect the people around me.
I was going to dig into logistics about forcing trans women and trans men to either risk entering the opposite bathroom to which they identify, or struggle to find a single-occupancy restroom to which they can be isolated from the rest of us (see Jim Crow Laws for reference on what that looks like). However, I don’t feel as though I need to suggest what it would feel like to be stuck using a men’s restroom as a woman and vice versa. I know if I stumbled into the women’s restroom there is a decent chance that security would be swift to tackle me and paint me as a sex offender to the local authorities and all because the law told me I had to use THAT restroom.
There has been a huge outcry and several articles on the topic; SCG did respond with this article addressing this issue. Fortunately they were able to work with the convention center to identify safe restrooms for transgender individuals to use. That is great, fine, dandy and really kind of them but:
- Will these bathrooms only be available to transgender individuals so that they always have an option as many of us do?
- Did anyone else notice that they are on an entirely different floor? Will they even be practical to use?
Not only will transgender players and judges need to switch floors to access a restroom they can feel safe using, but they will possibly have to do this during a match resulting in additional time taken away from the progress of a game and possibly additional time from the judge to make rulings and take judge calls while the game is paused. All this over something as simple as feeling safe and comfortable going to the bathroom. As referenced earlier, these new laws are functionally the same as Jim Crow laws which were designed to segregate an entire group of people to try and remind them that they were “worth less” than people with another skin color. These kinds of laws were supposed to be done with after all the steps we have taken towards desegregation and equality. As a whole we need to stand together to represent and fight for equal rights for each and every person. It may not affect me directly, but indirectly within a hobby that I love I want to be able to enjoy it with each and every person that can possibly bring something new to the table cisgender, transgender, gay, lesbian, or bi, black or white.
Aaron Gazzaniga manages a restaurant and in his off time has been an avid magic player/brewer since 2003. Having begun in Odyssey Standard Block and always favoring control and prison style decks, we come to this moment in time where Aaron finally gets to talk about and share his ideas.