I never thought I’d say this, but thank you, Donald Trump for appearing to have at least one principled bone in your body. I disagree with Donald Trump on almost everything, he’s a pretty gross human being, and I’d never vote for him. In fact, I’ll be campaigning against him.
However, as the mother of a transgender daughter, I appreciate that today he spoke up for the right of transgender people to use a bathroom that matches their gender and against discriminatory bathroom laws like the one in North Carolina:
Donald J. Trump said Thursday that transgender people should be allowed to use whatever bathroom they feel most comfortable with — including at Trump Tower in New York...Mr. Trump told a town-hall-style event, hosted by NBC’s “Today” show at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, that when people go to the restroom, they should “use the bathroom they feel is appropriate.”
“North Carolina did something — it was very strong — and they’re paying a big price,” Mr. Trump said. “And there’s a lot of problems. And I heard — one of the best answers I heard was from a commentator yesterday saying, leave it the way it is, right now.”
He added that before the law passed, there had been “very few problems” but now North Carolina is experiencing an exodus of businesses and “strife” from people on both sides of the issue.
“You leave it the way it is,” he said. “There have been very few complaints the way it is.”
And in response to a follow-up question, he said that if Caitlyn Jenner were to walk into Trump Tower and want to use a bathroom, he would be comfortable with her choosing any bathroom she wanted. “That is correct,” Mr. Trump said.
“You know, there’s a big move to create new bathrooms” for transgender people alone, Mr. Trump said. “First of all, I think that would be discriminatory in a certain way. It would be unbelievably expensive for businesses and for the country. Leave it the way it is.”
Trump has many supporters who, based on their hostile attitudes toward other minority groups, are probably hostile toward transgender people, too. My hope is that individuals who for some strange reason admire Trump will embrace his view that transgender people should “use the bathroom they feel is appropriate.”
Maybe he can communicate his views to his endorser Sarah Palin, who posted this odious cartoon on her Facebook page today (or maybe she won’t endorse him after this):
I don’t think I need to explain to anyone what is wrong with this cartoon. My trans daughter is no threat to any other woman, in or out of the bathroom. In fact, forcing her to use a men’s restroom puts her in danger.
If even an idiot like Donald Trump can recognize how wrong these laws are, do we dare to hope that other idiots might also come around?
Of course I anticipate that Trump will walk back one of the only good things he’s had to say in this campaign sometime tomorrow or the next day; or that he’ll come out in favor of the discriminatory bathroom laws later during the election cycle. But I appreciate that, for today at least, he spoke against them.
(Still not voting for him, though.)