The second decade of the 21^st Century has seen sweeping cultural and social change worldwide, with countless people altering their opinions and reevaluating their views.  In the United States, citizens have put their right to free speech to a good cause and have exercised it repeatedly in the hopes of achieving equality for the LGBT community.

One of the movement’s goals is to make all bathrooms gender neutral in a way that allows people to enter the restroom of their choosing. People regularly rail against the “tyranny” of separating each gender into a different lavatory. Cisgender, or different sex, restrooms are being protested against nationwide, and many hope for a day that any person can proudly enter the bathroom of their choosing.

Now, I am going do more than play Devil’s Advocate here when I say that there are two different bathrooms for a reason; the men’s bathroom is for the men, and the women’s bathroom is for the women. End of story.

Undoubtedly, I have sparked outrage amongst legions of people who will label me as a “hater” and call me “ignorant.” Whatever verbal abuse I receive, no matter how many politically correct people I offend, I will not turn my back on my values. I will say it once more, loud and clear.  Men must not go into a women’s bathroom. Women must not go into a men’s bathroom.

Now, I apologize if I have hurt anyone’s feelings. That was not my intention. However, my beliefs are not influenced by emotions, or any idealistic vindication of right and wrong.

My opinion has been formed by fact, logic, and quite a bit of common sense.  In order for me to fully articulate my reasoning, I must take a step back to a year ago.

I had joined my aunt in taking my young cousins to the Franklin Institute Museum in Philadelphia. The eldest there, I assisted my aunt in watching her three children, ages six, eight, and ten. During lunch, my six-year-old cousin announced that she had to go to the bathroom. I walked with her to the restroom area. On one side was the lavatory for women, on the other side was the bathroom for men. I waited outside as my cousin ventured into the women’s bathroom.

Wanting to make sure she was safe, I paid attention to who went in and to who walked out. From the corner of my eye, I saw a middle-aged man approach the restroom area. The man got closer, and for a split second, I thought he was going into the women’s room. I don’t know why I thought it, maybe it was because of where I was standing, or the way he moved, but I genuinely believed that this man was about to enter the female restroom. He did not; at the last moment the man walked into the men’s room, but for that second I realized a change came over me.

A minute later, my cousin emerged from the restroom and greeted me cheerfully, and together we returned to the museum cafeteria.

When I had thought that the man was going into the women’s bathroom my spine snapped straight and I stood tall. My heart began to pound. I watched him like a wolf protecting his pack. Because I was. I did not want this man to be in the same bathroom as my six-year-old cousin. I knew that if he had opened the door to the women’s bathroom I would have said something; I would have done something. I do not know what, but I am certain that I would have taken action.

Now, I had no idea who this man was. I had and still have nothing against this person. For all I knew, he could have been an honest and contributing member of American society, perhaps a family man, maybe a veteran. However, regardless of who he was or what he had done, I still would not have let him enter the women’s bathroom.

Flashing back to the present day, I can truthfully state that I have no anger against another person. I do not hate; I do not judge. I believe in respecting my fellow citizens and in helping those in need, regardless of race, religion, color, creed, or sexual orientation.

I, along with the other seven billion people who populate this world, am living in a time of cultural change. People in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community are demanding their rights of equality guaranteed to all Americans, and they are finally receiving them. I wholeheartedly support and applaud their achievements and feel that it is a triumph of the human spirit.

To some, my feelings of acceptance and goodwill might seem strange, as I am a Catholic Republican who voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. What’s more, both of the groups that I identify with and the president-elect historically have not seen eye-to-eye with the LGBT community. However, my political and religious views aside, I feel that I have no right to tell another person how to live his or her life. The Declaration of Independence states that Americans have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. How one finds that happiness is inconsequential. Furthermore, God said, “Love thy neighbor.” He never mentioned, “Love thy neighbor but only if he’s straight.”

I have laid out my principle reason for not wanting gender-neutral restrooms. I do not want men to be in the same bathroom with my six-year-old cousin, and perhaps twenty years from now my six-year-old daughter. I must reiterate that a dislike of transgender people is not a factor of my reasoning. I am confident that if bathrooms were gender-neutral, transgender people would not cause a problem and would do their business and get along with the day.

Here’s a summary of my reasoning. As a heterosexual male, I hate the idea of other heterosexual males with malignant intentions following my cousin, my sister, and perhaps my daughter into a restroom or locker room. Transgender people pose little threat to my female family members, I understand that. Nevertheless, there are still people who would gladly take advantage of this new law and prey on unsuspecting victims.

When the cries for gender-neutral bathrooms first came to public attention, I wanted to support them. However, the wily cynic that I am, I wanted to garner more information about the issue and weigh the positives and negatives before I made my decision. Thus, I embarked on a long and caffeine fueled research project on the pros and cons of gender-neutral bathrooms. I read numerous articles championing the topic, and for a time I was convinced. After all, almost every article cited the fact from many sources that no occurrences of transgender people endangering others in bathrooms had ever been reported.

Yes! I thought, Now I can proudly support gender neutral bathrooms knowing that those I care about will be safe! The elation rapidly dispersed as I read the next several articles. According to Christian Examiner (http://christianexaminer.com/), a website that focuses on contemporary issues, occurrences in a restroom at the University of Toronto were turning heads. The gender-neutral bathroom in question was a large lavatory with multiple toilets and showers, where male and female students could come and go as they pleased. In two separate incidents during September 2015, two female students reported seeing men with cellphones filming them while they were showering. The perpetrator was not caught. In response and under pressure, the University of Toronto separated its bathrooms by gender again.

Even more haunting are hypothetical possibilities. An intoxicated college girl stumbles into a bathroom at three-in-the-morning and passes out. A drunk male student later enters. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself alone with a scantily clad and unconscious girl. This is purely conjectural, but can likely happen.

There are numerous stories such as the one above, and they all include the same three elements: a gender-neutral bathroom, a predator, and a victim. If all bathrooms were gender-neutral, these occurrences would increase at an alarmingly fast rate.

People are quick to fire off solutions. In the comment sections on one article, someone had suggested that each man should give his cellphone to an official, along with signing his name into a logbook before he entered a gender-neutral bathroom. I strongly disagree with this thought, one reason being that logging in and mass cellphone confiscations would be inconvenient and costly (someone must be paid to keep track of names and hold onto the phones). More crucially, the idea of treating every male as a potential rapist is unfair and cruel. After all, there have been a number of reported women violating the privacy of men in gender-neutral bathrooms. At the end of the day, each instance would never have happened if bathrooms were separated by gender.

It is critical to notice that the cause of these unnerving tales is never a transgender person. Each time, the origin of the problem was a heterosexual person who took advantage of the situation to do a horrible thing.

I’ve often heard others lament that in a perfect world the idea of people using the bathroom of their choice would not be an issue. I concur. However, also in a perfect world there would not be those who prey on others. In a perfect world, I would not have to wake up before dawn to go to school. In a perfect world, I would not be blonde. Regrettably, we do not have that world.

So, I wonder, what is the solution? How do we respect the needs of transgender people and protect the public from those who would commit harm?

I feel that the way to achieve both goals is to institute a new bathroom policy. A gender-neutral single person restroom.  Such models are already being introduced in areas around the United States. A shower could be installed into the bathroom in places where needed, such as rest stops, college campuses, even high school locker rooms. Instead of one bathroom for the entire populace, there would be three: one for men, another for women, and a third for anybody to use.  Why not establish those nationwide?

In summary of my arguments, I steadfastly believe that all people are created equal. The first step in uniting the American population is acceptance, and with a friendly hand stretched out to each person our nation might become the land of the free, finally for all.