“You can’t assume that every trans person is dangerous based on the actions of a few.”

This is a common response from transgender activists, obviously designed to paint defenders of sex segregation as irrational bigots. But the vast majority of those who support keeping women’s spaces sex-segregated agree that trans people are not uniquely dangerous. Rather, they simply believe that male people – who, as a class, are indisputably responsible for the vast majority of violent crimes – do not become less dangerous simply because they identify themselves as women. For this reason, it’s both justifiable and rational `to exclude all male people from spaces where incidents of voyeurism, harassment, and abuse are most common, regardless of how they choose to identify.

To better understand this distinction, consider the following question: Do you believe left-handed, elderly, or socialist men should have the right to use women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, and other intimate spaces? And assuming you answer no, would it be reasonable to accuse you of believing that left-handedness, old age, and socialist politics are uniquely dangerous traits? Of course not! In the same way, it’s unreasonable to claim that women’s fears surrounding trans-identified males are evidence of a unique or irrational transphobic bigotry. Instead, they’re simply the result of justifiable and productive sex-based boundaries being consistently applied.