False Dichotomy

Darth Harley walked slowly with Darth Bowser as Harley tried to reason his way through a problem.

H: It was weird. Marty just showed up in a dress today and said he wanted to use the girls’ bathroom.

B: How do you feel about that?

H: I’m sure it would make the other girls uncomfortable.

B: It used to make a lot of people uncomfortable when white people married black people, but we now know there’s nothing wrong with that. People being made uncomfortable isn’t necessarily a reason to think something is wrong …

H: But what about sports? It’s unfair to let men compete against women in sports like swimming.

B: Then how can it be both right and wrong?

H: Maybe we’ve created a problem because we’re asking the wrong question. Worrying about boys who identify as females using the girls’ bathroom is only a problem if there are only two bathrooms. If there was an extra bathroom for transgender females, this wouldn’t be a problem. Sports are the same. If boys who identify as girls don’t want to compete against boys, then invent a new division for transgender girls. When they saw it was unfair for someone who was 6″4 and 260 pounds to wrestle or box against someone who was 5″7 and 130 pounds, they didn’t get rid of boxing or wrestling. They made different weight divisions.

B: It’s in seeing a false dichotomy that we can often find wisdom, Harley. It was a paradox that respecting transgenderism seemed both right and wrong, but this problem came from trying to fit transgender people into the traditional categories of either male or female. In seeing transgender as a new category on its own, transgender people are able to receive the respect and dignity they deserve.