Bathrooms: Too much fuss over small numbers

Oh my! Transgender people in the bathroom! How many transgender people are there? It’s a difficult number to determine, but the best estimate is about 0.3 percent. In a high school of 1,000 students, that would be three kids. A threat? Worth all the hubbub? Why does a certain element of the population get so riled up over statistically nothing? The last battle was over gay marriage, which involves about 4 percent of the population. Why don’t they get excited about numbers that matter?

One in five women will experience domestic violence. Between 2001 and 2012, 11,766 women were killed by their partners. In 2012, there were 62,939 reported cases of sexual abuse of children. These numbers matter. Let’s focus on those who are beaten up, sexually abused or even killed every day in America instead of the small number of kids who are confused about which bathroom they are supposed to use.

This story was originally published May 18, 2016 at 10:57 AM with the headline "Bathrooms: Too much fuss over small numbers."