I read John Lifflander’s Jan. 29 letter, “Speak out on bathroom rules,” with extreme sadness. His misinformed examples of what could happen if transgender people use the bathroom of their affirmed gender were hyperbolic and polarizing.
First, transgender has nothing to do with pedophilia. I’m a mom and pay very close attention to any notices of sex offenders living in Vancouver and I’ve never seen a transgender person in the profiles. I challenge Lifflander to find statistics defending his transgender-pedophilia connection before he makes such declarations.
Second, I want to address the example of a group of trans girls tormenting innocent girls in the locker room. While I realize this scenario would be alarming, the fact is that being transgender is actually pretty scary for kids. In a life stage where fitting in is critically important, transgender kids are not going to be running around naked in a locker room.
The suicide rate of transgender youth is alarmingly high. Compassion and understanding by our community would go a long way towards reducing this. Allowing bathroom use is an act of compassion.
