Payton McGarry: Just respect privacy

Regarding the April 27 Point of View “A matter of fairness”: Gregory Wallace is wrong when he says balancing the privacy rights of transgender people and others is “a zero-sum game.”

As a full-time student at UNC-Greensboro and a transgender man, I used men’s locker rooms and restrooms on campus without incident for years – long before lawmakers decided they needed to police my bathroom visits through the discriminatory House Bill 2.

In that time, no one ever complained to me, or notified me of any complaints, about my using the men’s facilities. When I used those spaces, I respected other people’s privacy, and they respected mine. This is not a zero-sum game.

Under HB2, I am forced to use a women’s restroom, where I clearly don’t belong, or break the law.

When I am on campus, single occupancy restrooms are not in the buildings where I have class and are hard to come by. To leave the building in search of a single occupancy restroom is demeaning, stigmatizing and unrealistic and gets in the way of my education.

I value and respect other people’s privacy. All I am asking is that others respect mine as well.

The writer is a plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging HB2 in federal court.

This story was originally published April 29, 2016 at 3:31 PM with the headline "Payton McGarry: Just respect privacy."