Gender segregation

A strange question that I have no answer to occurred to me: in a state where discrimination based on gender is not allowed, shouldn?t gendered bathrooms, changing rooms, etcetera be illegal?

If you think about them, ignoring the reasons they exist, these are places you cannot go if you have the wrong gender, which is discrimination. And if you look at the reasons... I guess the main reason must be to protect women? But isn?t it kind of sexist to assume anyone who is male might be dangerous to women? Furthermore, if we do accept male aggression as an inevitable fact of life, mixed gender places are safer for many people: homosexual males, anyone who doesn?t neatly fit into the male or female categories for whatever reason, men who are perceived as weak, and so on, will all be safer in a place that allows more people who aren?t males and therefore not aggressive males. There?s also the matter of female aggression, but I don?t want to make the matter any more complicated than it already is.

Adding mixed gender rooms is easy (but a lot of work), so this (possible) discrimination can be ended. A more difficult issue is that some religions separate men and women in some of their rituals. I don?t think the state is supposed to be able to force a religion to change a ritual (unless it?s human sacrifice or something), on the other hand discrimination based on gender is not supposed to be allowed... so now what? And what if a religion and an individual disagree about the gender of that individual (who might be intersex, so none of those ?if you were born with a penis, you?re male? arguments please)? Who then gets to decide which part of the ritual they?re allowed to join?

There?s also gender discrimination in sports, but I think that is permissible. Being physically female (or in some cases male) is a handicap in sports, and if we don?t allow separate competitions with handicaps, then we?d also have to outlaw the paralympics. Reductio ad absurdum. But if anyone disagrees with me on this sub-subject, I would love to read their reasoning. Just to point at some weaknesses in my opinion: There does seem to be a need for a competition for intersex individuals, but at the same time not enough individuals to participate in them. Also, maybe some women have higher natural testosterone levels than some men, even without an intersex condition. Then it may not be fair to see sex as a handicap, and we should separate people by measured testosterone instead... which may change...

Well that?s an awful lot of issues, I guess I should stop now and see what you all have to say.

Disagreeing with me doesn?t make you wrong, but know that I?m always right.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/svtdDTNxGZ4/viewtopic.php

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