In short, a man who identifies as a female was seen naked by a 17 year old female in a female locker room sauna on college campus. Next, all hell breaks loose and hate starts to fly. You can read more here: http://www.seattleweekly.com/2012-11-07/news/sex-changes-and-changing-rooms-at-evergreen/
After seeing the story on a friends wall from a very negative source I found a few better sources and thought about how I would feel if any of my daughters or son would see someone naked of the opposite gender in a locker room at different ages, and this is the reply I came up with on my friends facebook wall.
In Short, back in September Miss Colleen, who has been a women since 2009, was in the female Sauna naked like many and a 17 year old high school swim team student saw that SHE had male parts. This has since caused much hate to be thrown at Miss Colleen but in the end, the law protects her as she was doing nothing wrong. She didn’t mean to harm anyone, she meant to use the Sauna. Not everyone has towels on in those things, and I think seeing a women spread eagle might cause a conversation to be had with a young child too, not that one saw Colleens male parts but it could happen given the situation, though I am not sure any child even belongs in a sauna in the first place. The college did put up curtains around the locker room and such for added privacy of everyone. The fact is, in a locker room chances are your going to see nakedness. It is not sexual, it just is. Small children like it or not do understand biology and do understand there is a difference between male and female and if the mere site of the naked body of any sex is harmful, then there are deeper issues. Maybe this is the same mentality that has people against public breastfeeding. In anycase, I support Colleen, and like breast feeding, if my children saw someone naked, be them male or female in a locker room, that is just a conversation we would need to have. No. Big. Deal. I think we need to grow up as a society.
Maybe call this my secular homeschooling attitude, I am happy to teach my children about science and biology and I am happy to raise them to be accepting of others, and I am all for teaching them about healthy body image that is not connected to sex. Breastfeeding is no more sexual than lounging in a sauna in trying to get the toxins out. It was not a sexual act, it was a normal act for a place like that, it just does not tend to have the same nature given parts but naked is naked, the body is the body. If my children saw such a thing I would take it as a chance to go over anatomy, the differences in bodies, and also explain with compassion how hard it must be to be Miss Colleen, stuck in a body with parts she does not identify with. She is a girl and doesn’t look how she feels. Sounds like she is making her way though and is very strong. I sure hope so, given the hate that is coming her way. I am glad the college is standing behind her rights.
Also a great time to teach children about self control, if they see something that makes them uncomfortable they can leave an area or just not look. I wish more people had this self control when they spew hate about public breastfeeding. Yes, this is a lot like that. The human body being sexualized in a none sexual situation. Again, we need to grow up as a society.
