ABSTRACT
Of all the legislative and political battles around transgender rights—military service, antidiscrimination statutes, health care—the one to arguably capture the most public attention has been the debate over bathroom bills, laws proposed in numerous states that would require transgender people to use the bathroom and locker room that aligns with their biological sex rather than their gender identity. This chapter analyzes the public discourse and political strategies both for and against the bills in the high-profile cases of North Carolina and Texas. Much of the debate centered on schools, putting tremendous pressure on trans students, who already experience high rates of bullying, violence, and suicide. I argue that the vulnerability inherent in bathroom spaces, where people have to do private things in public places, creates an affectively charged site for mobilizing fear around transgender populations. At the same time, some of the tactics employed by transgender activists normalize passable trans bodies—those who adhere to stereotypes of how men and women “should” look. I situate this case study within recent trans studies scholarship and put it in conversation with feminist and antiracist scholarship in communication to consider the limits of trans inclusion within liberal paradigms of rights and equality.
