Inquirer editorial: Bathroom law aims to reverse progress on transgender rights

Many Americans who grew up with a particular perspective on what was deviant or "queer" are having a hard time accepting the rapid changes allowing more people to openly identify with a gender other than the one they were born with.

That does not excuse misguided efforts such as North Carolina's attempt to keep the clock set to a time when being openly gay or transgender invited discrimination and violence. But it does explain the need for patience as those reluctant to change learn to accept, if not embrace, friends, neighbors, and relatives who for generations were expected to stay hidden in the closet.

Think about it: It's been a half-century since the Supreme Court's 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision, which invalidated state laws prohibiting interracial marriage. But some mixed-race couples still find themselves enduring long stares or outright ostracism by those who seem to follow George Wallace's credo: "Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

In less than 25 years, the nation has gone from President Bill Clinton's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on gay soldiers to President Obama's appointment of Eric K. Fanning as the first openly gay secretary of the Army. Along the way, more members of another group - transgender people, whose biological sex doesn't match the gender their brains tell them they are - have decided to stop pretending to be something they aren't in search of acceptance.

A 2011 study by the Williams Institute estimated that eight million Americans are gay, lesbian, or bisexual and an additional 700,000 are transgender. Easily the most well-known person among the latter is Caitlyn Jenner, who before her coming out was known as Bruce Jenner, winner of the 1976 Olympic gold medal in the decathlon.

As with Jenner, transgender identity doesn't necessarily involve sex-reassignment surgery. The American Medical Association has recommended that states not make changing the gender designation of a birth certificate contingent on the surgery, which can cost up to $50,000.

The fact that you can't identify a transgender person by looking at him or her apparently prompted North Carolina's absurd law requiring people to use bathrooms that correspond with their sex at birth. Will birth certificates now be required to enter a bathroom stall?

The law ostensibly was passed to deter sexual predators. But transgender individuals who are forced to use bathrooms where bigots are more likely to attack them may be in greater need of protection.

Obama's response to the North Carolina law was also heavy-handed. He demanded that it not be enforced and hinted that the state could lose federal education dollars if it does not comply. Rather than ease tensions, this exacerbated them. Twelve states say they will join North Carolina in defying Obama. Suits have been filed to sort out who has the Constitution on their side.

Despite all the agitated rhetoric being tossed about, history suggests that discrimination will lose in the end. Younger Americans don't have the same gender prejudices as their parents. In a sense, a natural progression is occurring that is in keeping with the advent of coed dorms and unisex public bathrooms. The speed of change requires patience for those having a hard time accepting it, but change is inevitable.