Specious women’s safety arguments for ‘bathroom bill’ appeal to toxic masculinity

Some proposals from the Louisiana Legislature are easy to place in the pointless category from the onset. On the other hand, other pieces of legislation are more deceptive, professing to accomplish something good when, in fact, they only serve a dubious political purpose. 

For example, the House of Representatives has advanced a bill to prohibit the use of the word “free” when describing government giveaways of products, services and benefits. Its author, Rep. Beryl Amedée, R-Schriever, weirdly assumes recipients aren’t intelligent enough to determine that, somewhere along the way, someone had to pay for the handouts. The blatant overtones of the proposal leave little room for misinterpretation. 

Tell me you think extremely little of people who require government assistance without telling me you think extremely little of them. 

Slightly less obvious are the motivations behind the proposed Women’s Safety and Protection Act, which based on name alone seems like a cause everyone should throw their support behind. It would provide “protections for women and girls against sexual assault, harassment, and violence in correctional facilities, juvenile detention facilities, domestic violence shelters, dormitories, and restrooms, or where women have been traditionally afforded safety and protection from acts of abuse committed by biological men.”

It’s in those last two words where the motives of Rep. Roger Wilder, R-Denham Springs, become clear. Tell me that you’re targeting transgender people without telling me you’re targeting transgender people. 

Lawmakers in support have been quick to point out “transgender” doesn’t appear in the legislation. But Wilder erased any strains of ambiguity when he presented his bill to the House April 11. His arguments to colleagues seemed more centered on testosterone shaming than safety.        

“To each of the men in this body – to the strong, capable, brave, accomplished, honorable men in here – especially the fathers, the husbands and the sons, I have a question for each of you,” Wilder said just before the floor vote. “Why have we, myself included, as men even allowed this to get to this point? How’ve we let things fall so far from the basic values of civility, honor and chivalry? Where’d it all go?”

There have been many unique arguments for proposals over the years from members of the Louisiana Legislature, but this might be the first time one has been boiled down to such a manly essence – dare, I say, a musk. 

This appeal to toxic masculinity makes Wilder’s stance look even more fragile. 

The House sent Wilder’s bill to the Senate with an 80-17 vote, with 11 men and six women secure enough to vote no. 

When pressed for the motivation behind his bill, Wilder nebulously cited an incident at a public park in his district that raised more questions than it answered. He said a “biological male” insisted to a park employee that he be given access to the women’s locker room at the facility. When his request was refused, the person apparently threatened to sue officials. Wilder, who declined to name the park, said constituents asked him to bring the bill.

Wilder skimmed over the fact that the alleged incident was not a crime – not even close to one. By obscuring this, the false flag Wilder wants to pin on transgender people is obvious.  

He did acknowledge the Alliance Defending Freedom helped him write the proposal, continuing Republicans’ nationwide push to take away the rights of trans people. The Christian legal advocacy organization molded U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson early in his law career, has actively promoted anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and sought to make sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ+ adults a crime. 

The Southern Poverty Law Center considers the Alliance a hate group, which in turn considers the SPLC a “discredited and scandal-ridden” organization. 

But when opponents framed Wilder’s bill as a hate measure on the House floor, Rep. Jay Gallé, R-Mandeville, would have none of it. He’s one of the proposal’s 67 co-authors.

“My faith requires me to love everyone,” Gallé told his colleagues. 

Warms the cockles, doesn’t it? Maybe we should just accept Gallé on blind faith. 

Proponents of Wilder’s legislation would have you believe transgender people are the leading culprits of sexual assault when, in fact, actual cases with trans perpetrators are extremely rare. But, as Rep. Aimee Freeman, D-New Orleans, pointed out, white men are by far the leading perpetrators of sexual assault.

“So should we keep them out of all of the bathrooms?” Freeman asked the House.   

About half of women report being raped by an intimate partner, and 40.8% by an acquaintance, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Research has repeatedly shown sexual abuse is about power and control, not sexual orientation, with studies finding upwards of 80% of male abusers of male children were heterosexuals.      

But if policy must gravitate to high profile instances of sexual abuse, why have we yet to see a law to constrain predators within the Roman Catholic Church and Southern Baptist faith? When he was attorney general, Jeff Landry falsely claimed his office hadn’t received complaints about clergy abuse. It’s a problem so prevalent that the Archdiocese of New Orleans alone is expected to pay out more than $100 million to settle lawsuits from abuse survivors.

Yet Wilder insists bathrooms are the clear battleground to wage the war against sexual predators and to take a masculine stand for women.   

“Our intent is to send a clear message that Louisiana will absolutely preserve the safety and dignity of women and girls,” he said. 

Except when it comes to reproductive health, apparently. Republican state lawmakers raced to put one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans in place once Roe v. Wade was overturned, and now they won’t budge to allow exceptions for rape or incest. The law is so unyielding that doctors fear providing treatment for miscarriages could leave them open to criminal prosecution, placing pregnant patients at further risk. 

Tell me you don’t really care about women without telling me you don’t care about women.