A view from the bridge

By Editor | August 13, 2025

It doesn’t cost anything

The Texas Legislature is just steps away from enacting a law allegedly designed to protect women’s restrooms from having men in them.
Essentially, the state government aims to stop men who identify as women from going to the toilet in a place where they feel more comfortable.
Been a lot of that in Texas, has there?
I can honestly say that I have never in my 40 years in Texas come across any person complaining about having met anyone of the opposite gender in a public toilet.
Never.
And I have met a lot of people. It rather comes with the territory when one writes for a newspaper.
I should add, of course, that I don’t usually start conversations with new acquaintances by saying “Oh yes, lovely to meet you, and have you ever found a man in your toilet?”
Really, I don’t think it’s something I’ve needed to ask, and not because I don’t want to know but because I’m sure that if a lady were to be so affronted at such an encounter she might announce it to others by way of warning in reference to a particular restroom.
That aside, I must acknowledge that, yes, there have obviously been occasions when men have used women’s restrooms, or at the very least asked if they may.
In some cases, I should think, women might not have cared all that much. In others, I should also think, they might have indicated politely that they’d rather not share the same space and asked whether the gentleman might wait a moment until the room is clear.
But there appear to be some – and I believe they are in a minority – who must think about these sorts of things quite a lot and may lie awake at night in horror and anguish at the idea of a man being nearby when a woman is using a toilet. Furthermore, they must think about it so much that they have felt compelled to press for appropriate legislation.
I don’t.
I’m not suggesting that I think those people who have spent a lot of time writing the law and using valuable government resources are necessarily wrong, because I believe they are entitled to their opinion. I’m just suggesting that the leviathan organization that is the Texas government might direct its attention to more pressing matters that require a keen focus, instead of something that could be resolved quite simply by posting a sign.
A polite one.
It doesn’t cost anything to be polite. It doesn’t cost anything to say “May I?”
Now, whether a man who identifies as a woman should be required to ask permission to use a restroom designated for women is a different debate altogether. It calls up arguments over rights unquestioned, equalities reinforced. Having to ask permission is almost by definition an acknowledgement of some kind of inferiority, and I certainly don’t support anything that would make one person feel less of a person than any other.
Alas, this is where the debates overlap and a rapidly accelerating circle begins to develop. You see, by forcing certain men who feel more comfortable in a different restroom to go to the one with a trousered silhouette on the door we are targeting a specific group of people, singling them out for unfair attention, making them objects of ridicule and spite.
That’s a hurtful thing to do to anyone.
Texans are not hurtful people. Texans will help each other out of any situation. Texans will reach out a hand to the downtrodden, the less fortunate, the underdog and the victim. In that sense, Texans are far different from the American macho stereotype, the cardboard cutout caricature of the boorish bully.
Why? Because Texans, one and all, have been there too. Texans have worked hard against extraordinary odds to make their home and to uphold their liberties. Texans have learned that it takes every type of man and woman to make a community flourish, and to value every contribution.
When Texans ask for a government, it’s because they need someone to sort out the complicated things for the betterment of all, not for the belittlement of some.
Texans have neither the time nor the inclination to make a fuss about stuff that just doesn’t matter all that much, and I’d venture to say it doesn’t sit well with them that their lawmakers are piddling around with absurd distractions when there are clearly far more urgent matters at hand.