Analyst With Religious Group Argues Separate Facilities Are Best For Transgender People
(CBS) -- While some states and localities are considering laws that require transgender people to use certain bathrooms and locker rooms, a religious group official feels separate facilities are the safest answer, reports WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore.
Laurie Higgins, cultural analyst for the conservative Christian group the Illinois Family Institute, refuses to use the term "transgender." She calls uses the term "gender dysphoric" for people who feel their gender is different from the one they had at birth.
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She does not feel schools and society in general should allow transgender people to use the restrooms they choose.
"If gender dysphoria is a mismatch between your mind, your feelings and your body…how can people be certain that the error is in the body instead of the mind?" Higgins said. "In addition, for those people who think physical embodiment is male and female is meaningful and actually the source of feelings about modesty and privacy, we have to honor that too."
She says advocates on the left insist that people who feel uncomfortable with their gender should be accommodated. But, she says, so should people whose feelings about modesty make them uncomfortable around those they believe are of the opposite sex.
For students in school, Higgins says uncomfortable feelings about who is in which bathroom could lead to bullying, which she says she abhors. She says separate bathrooms would be best for those who call themselves transgender.
Higgins was a guest on this week's At Issue. To listen to the entire interview, click here.
