The Missing Link

February 01, 2006

Words Have a Meaning

The always entertaining James Lileks argues that words have a meaning.

The controversy he discusses -- people arguing that male and female bathrooms exclude the transgendered -- is indeed widespread, if only on college campuses. Our own Claremont Colleges are no exception.

This op-ed from The Student Life, a paper I ran as an undergraduate at Pomona College, could benefit from Lileks' sensible lesson. Its author writes:

When an individual’s choice to enter one restroom over another is no longer a simple part of their regular activities, but rather becomes a potentially lethal event that must be feared and planned for on a daily basis, a serious line has been crossed. Gender-neutral bathrooms are no more a convenience for gender-variant people than seatbelts are for the safety of those riding in a car; they are an absolute necessity. To question that logic and the validity of that claim runs tantamount to being an accessory to murder. You may not be pulling the trigger, but you are the one putting the gun to someone’s head and forcing them toward their attacker.

If you can bear any more click through to the article--the sentence following the excerpt shows that for this author words are little more than emotional triggers.

Posted by Conor at February 1, 2006 03:19 AM