What Britain can learn from America’s bathroom battles

James Kirkup’s article (‘The march of trans rights’) discussed many of the complexities created by the issue, and rightly so. It also briefly mentioned the ‘bathroom battles’ in the United States. Such episodes illustrate the practical problems with legislating against such societal developments — new laws often do not solve but escalate the issue.

In North Carolina in 2016, legislation was introduced to prevent transgender individuals from using particular bathrooms. The policing of this law presented practical issues. It would be impossible to guard every gender-specific public bathroom in the state. Either it would require a significant increase in police numbers, or be up to the business to enact the law. This would require that business’s members of staff do it or that security guards be hired for the purpose. Major companies boycotted the state and the aforementioned bill was eventually repealed. This did not prevent similar attempts in other southern US legislatures, who seem to have a fondness for certain social legislation.