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Comment by roenxi | Hacker News Reader

I did just write "that is an inescapable problem that has dogged humanity since before we were a species" you know. But nonetheless the trans bathroom one has a simple and nonpolitical resolution until the people who want segregation start making an argument about why some people need a special bathroom. At which point the gender thing probably doesn't matter.

This is a part of why people are hopeful that they can keep spaces focused. Many of the popular "political issues" are more theatre around identity than any real substance.

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So you’re in agreement with me that “no politics” isn’t really a thing in a space? That’s all I’m saying. I’m using transgender issues as an example but my overall point is that there’s no such thing as a space that is focused around something and simply gets a no politics rule. There is always some kind of politics in play simply by nature of politics being an extension of acceptable and unacceptable community, e.g. a person who happens to be trans is the hot topic now, but within my parents generation probably the political act is enforcing a shared bathroom between whites and blacks!

> So you’re in agreement with me that “no politics” isn’t really a thing in a space?

Yeah, its a meaningless term. The people calling for it are clearly being inarticulately and are trying to say something else.

But the trans bathroom thing has an obvious resolution. The people fighting over it are more about wanting to pick a fight than that there is an actual issue; if the people around me wanted me to use the female bathroom or the male bathroom either is cool. It's a bathroom. They meet a unisex need. If segregation is an issue in the abstract then stop doing that until there is an objective standard to use instead of a subjective one.

'Everyone who disagrees with my obvious resolution only wants to pick a fight over what I deem a non-issue for me, and therefore, everyone.'

That is generally how it works when people don't accept obvious resolutions. If you want to challenge its obviousness be my guest. It is pretty normal for a DnD/board game group to be meeting at someone's house where there is literally only one bathroom. It is hard to miss the fact that both genders can use it without complaint.

In a sporting context or similar where people are needing to change clothes then it isn't an easy one, but in this context it isn't much of a challenge.

Are you saying that a policy which works for invited guests in a private, one-bathroom home, should, based on its success there, be adopted at a societal scale?

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