Hello,

I am writing to Mark Hinds about their article on the SC bathroom bill. I am a Clemson student and a member of the trans community who would like to remain anonymous for the purposes of this letter. 

Mark, you tackled a very difficult issue in the April 11 paper and honestly you really dropped the ball.

Why was this article about you? Why spend so much time talking about how you cannot understand the outlook of another group of people? Why did you not talk about the bill itself, how it would affect the lives of the people it is trying to police. Why not talk about the issues trans people face? How such laws increase the numbers of assaults, rapes, and murders committed against trans people each year? 

Did you know that many people in the trans community have actually pushed for third option intersex bathrooms? So that agender and bigender individuals can go to the bathroom without having to assign themselves as male or female.

Did you know that by forcing trans people to go into the bathroom of their assigned at birth gender you are actually creating the situation where an “old man walks into the same bathroom as your daughter”? Have you ever spoken to or interacted with a trans man or woman? Here are some photos.

This is a trans man (bottom right). This is a person who when they came out of their mother’s womb was declared a woman. Here they are in their assigned bathroom.

Here is a trans woman (top right). This is a person who when they came out of their mother’s womb was declared a man. Here they are in their assigned bathroom.

Can you see why many trans individuals would rather use the bathroom of their identified gender. Honestly, this issue was handled so poorly. You say you can not even begin to comprehend the people you are writing about and make no shown effort to even try. There is an LGBT+ group on campus who you could have contacted and numerous medical professionals in Redfern you could have interviewed. Why did you not speak to them about this issue? You could have asked a member of the community to write a rebuttal. Why talk about your  feelings, fears and confusions when you could have spoken about the facts or the people it targets?