title:  Glenn Beck’s Bullsh*t Defense Of Bigoted Bathroom Bills Is Pure Stupidity (AUDIO)
text: Glenn Beck has shared his opinion on the bigoted Bathroom Bill in North Carolina which forces transgender people to use toilets contrary to their gender identity. Beck s bullsh*t defense of the plans is just about the stupidest thing you ll hear all day   and we re in an election cycle.Beck argues that his support of the bathroom bills popping up across the nation s red states is absolutely nothing to do with bigotry and transphobia. According to Beck: It has nothing to do with hate. It has everything to do with common sense. But we have detached from common sense. He then, of course, launches into the same entirely hateful, ignorant, fear-mongering which Ted Cruz and Curt Schilling have engaged in during the course of the debate. He creates the specter of his young daughter being confronted by a man pretending to be a woman in the bathroom   invoking primal fear. Beck and others state is as a fact that this will happen all the time without a bathroom bill, despite the sum total of zero cases to date.But Beck is far from alone in his stupidity.Curt Schilling was recently fired by ESPN after sharing a Facebook post in support of the anti-transgender bill passed in North Carolina. The post consisted of an image, featuring a man in a wig, his T-shirt cut to expose breasts, and a bizarre black outfit of women s clothing. The image was accompanied by text which read: LET HIM IN! to the restroom with your daughter or else you re a narrow-minded, judgmental, unloving racist bigot who needs to die. Former player Schilling then added: A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don t care what they are, who they sleep with, men s room was designed for the penis, women s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic. ESPN later issued a statement claiming Schilling s  unacceptable conduct  violated their policy of inclusiveness: ESPN is an inclusive company. Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated. GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz has also come out in support for the bills on the same bigoted basis. Cruz told ABC News Saturday: There is no greater evil than predators and if the law says that any man, if he chooses can enter a women s restroom, a little girl s restroom and stay there and he cannot be removed because he simply says at that moment he feels like a woman, you re opening the door for predators. However, using a caricature of a cross-dressing predator to invoke fear about transgender people using the gender identity appropriate bathroom is plain bigotry. One could just as readily argue the opposite, as transgender men did en masse with the hashtag Using the hashtag #WeJustNeedToPee. Bearded transgender men posted pictures of themselves in the women s bathroom, next to women entering cubicles and doing their makeup.Michael Hughes, from Minnesota, posted the picture below, asking:  Do I look like I belong in a women s bathroom?Under the North Carolina law, Michael would be legally compelled to use the women s bathrooms   despite the fact that he would clearly cause some degree of confusion and worry by doing so.Surely the long-term answer is to remove the gender apartheid from toilets altogether? Plenty of countries around the world do just fine using mixed bathrooms. Why not us?Featured Image via Flickr Creative Commons