Comedian Rhea Butcher On Why Anti-Trans Bathroom Policies Are Bad For Everyone, Especially Kids
By Rachel Cromidas in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 23, 2017 8:25PM
Rhea Butcher. Photo: RheaButcher.com
Celebrated (and formerly Chicago-based, now LA-based) comedian Rhea Butcher is no stranger, unfortunately, to strangers questioning what she's doing in public women's restrooms. That's probably thanks to her masculine-of-center style of dressing, short haircut and gender presentation, which often factor into her comedy ("My name is Rhea Butcher. It's not a fake name, it's funny because it's true. I'm 100 percent butcher than all of you.").
Like us, Butcher was alarmed to learn of President Donald Trump's plan to make it even less safe for transgender children to use restrooms in public schools. Though Butcher does not identify as trans, she is frequently misgendered as a man in public, and recalls growing up afraid to use public restrooms for women or for men because of fears of being assaulted or shamed for not being masculine or feminine enough.
Butcher took to Twitter Thursday afternoon to share her perspective on the trans bathroom rights policy as someone who grew up in conservative Akron, Ohio and has been threatened and harassed in women's rest rooms multiple times throughout her life. She said the policy is damaging to people of all genders, because it suggests that a person must visually conform to stereotypes about what men and women look like in order to be accepted. And it's particularly damaging to children, who are already fearful of strangers in public restrooms.
"This law is about KIDS. Children. Little tiny people. Forced to enter a space that scares them. Told by adults they are wrong," she wrote. You can read the whole Twitter thread, below:
I've spent my entire life terrified of public bathrooms 1/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
I've had people threaten me, harrass me, etc in the women's public restroom 2/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
My parents were always divorced. My dad never took me to the bathroom, I had to go alone. Most visits, I held it 3/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
I was scared as a kid to go to the bathroom alone, mostly because of kidnapping scares (I watched too much tv without supervision) 4/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
When I was 5 I went camping w/ my dad and went to a public bathroom alone, while he waited in his truck 5/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
I had a chin length bob hair cut and a too big Batman shirt and some "surf" shorts my mom made for me. Slip on fake Vans 6/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
I went into the restroom and as I entered, a furious voice bellowed, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?!" 7/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
I was terrified. I didn't know what to do. I can't remember if I said "I'm a girl" or if I stayed silent. I can't even remember if I left 8/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
I don't know if I told my dad. I told him a bout instances later on in my life and his response was always "well, what'd you expect?" 9/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
In addition to being the first time I was harassed and assaulted for being in a pub restroom, this incident sticks with me 10/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
It hurt me and changed me so deeply, it engrained in me a fear of adults that I still have to this day 11/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
And this person who assaulted me for being what they thought was the wrong gender in the women's bathroom? This person was a man. 12/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
This man was cleaning the women's bathroom and told me I was wrong. Incorrect. I shouldn't be there, I shouldn't be me. He was "Right." 13/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
The bathroom fight is about so much more than peeing.
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
It's about the right to exist. To be.
/14
Public bathrooms are a concentrated version of gender conformity. Not only are literally forced through a "woman" door or "man" door 15/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
We then have to fit through an even narrower understanding of what SOMEONE else thinks is visually appropriate for that gender 16/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
I am serving jury duty right now. Moments ago, I had to reassure a confused woman that she was, indeed, in the women's restroom 18/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
This happens everyday to trans, nonbinary, genderqueer folks. We have to hide or edit or confront. Eyes everywhere. Every. Single. Day. 19/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
And this law is about KIDS. Children. Little tiny people. Forced to enter a space that scares them. Told by adults they are wrong. 20/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
My mom was always supportive. This was 1987, she did her best. Told me to ask where the women's restroom was instead of just restroom 21/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
She told me I was perfect and I could do and be whatever I wanted. 22/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
She's a seamstress and made me dresses. She never once made me feel bad for not wanting her dresses, for actively despising them 23/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017
My mom works at a convenience pharmacy in Akron, Ohio. She wears a safety pin to work every day. 24/
— Rhea Butcher (@RheaButcher) February 23, 2017