Thanks to the “progress” made by “progressives” in government, the media and the SJW movement we, as a nation, are quickly approaching the point of losing our collective minds and turning the country into the living embodiment of a Far Side cartoon. There is currently no better example of this than the ongoing debate taking place in North Carolina over the question of whether or not men (and I am tired of using the redundant, needless phrase biological men) should be allowed in public bathrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms and showers with women and young girls. The effort to sell this idea to a naturally skeptical if not outright rebellious population has spread to the editorial pages of one of the state’s largest newspapers, the Charlotte Observer. In a recent sermon to their readers, the editors praise the Obama administration and their allies for pushing us to cast off propriety and accepted standards of decency and privacy in favor of the new world order, somehow likening this foolish and offensive debate to the civil rights movement.

This is what the Obama administration nudged the rest of the country toward Friday. Yes, the thought of male genitalia in girls’ locker rooms – and vice versa – might be distressing to some. But the battle for equality has always been in part about overcoming discomfort – with blacks sharing facilities, with gays sharing marriage – then realizing that it was not nearly so awful as some people imagined.

Writing at The American Thinker, my friend Rick Moran throws some much needed cold water on the idea that this is anything in the same zip code as “normal” or that it’s some sort of parallel to racial inequity.

The notion that the Obama administration is “nudging” anything is laughable. The Obama Justice Department is shoving this rule down the throats of Americans, most of whom oppose the policy.

How is this issue remotely connected to race relations? It isn’t, but gullible Americans will believe it, despite the disconnect from reality. Black and white people did not choose their race. By its very definition, transgendered people choose their gender identity. That’s a monumental difference hidden in this politically correct message.

Rick is absolutely correct and little more on that specific aspect of the discussion needs to be said. The era of segregation saw people of different races being herded into separate facilities, with those provided for minorities frequently being of lesser quality if they were available at all. And, as he notes, no one ever gave a black person the “choice” to be white instead. In this farcical debate, even in facilities which only provide the two, traditional, gender specific accommodations, everyone is offered the same services and they are only separated for reasons of privacy, comfort and safety. Comparing this debate to race relations is a dishonest attempt to deliberately cloud the issue.

We should focus a bit less on the safety aspect, however, without discounting it entirely. While it’s true that throwing open the doors (literally) of women’s bathrooms, changing rooms and showers to men provides easier access to perverts, pedophiles and peeping toms, that only represents the worst case scenario. Focusing solely on that danger, which is more than real enough even if it’s statistically uncommon, glosses over the basic denial of privacy and protection which our society has traditionally provided to citizens. There is nothing “normal” in any sense of the word about expecting women (and particularly underage girls) to simply accept that they may be exposed to men’s genitals while out conducting their normal business in public. Moran echos my sentiments on this point as well.

When a man exposes himself on the street in front of a teenage girl, the police always offer the services of a psychologist to the young woman to help her deal with the trauma of seeing a male penis. Liberals will claim the context is different in a locker room or bathroom. That’s nonsense. To a teenage girl, a penis is a penis and context is meaningless.

But to the Charlotte Observer and the Obama administration, teenage girls being exposed to the sight of male genitals is something to be “overcome.” In this lunatic world, we place the burden of transgender progress on young girls, telling them to just get over it.

No, the citizens of North Carolina should most certainly not just get over it. Nor should anyone else. As I’ve written here before, the entire “problem” being addressed – if we must treat it as a problem to begin with – has a ready, albeit expensive solution available. If “transgender” citizens wish to demand that their needs in this area be met, then they must be ready to accommodate the very real and long accepted needs of the other 99% of the population with whom they share the planet. Traditional gendered facilities can be kept while adding single user, gender neutral ones which anyone can use. In extreme cases, where space and funding are available, you could eliminate group facilities entirely and simply have a larger number of single user rooms and showers. There’s really no need to do this since gender is static and determined at conception in all but a tiny percentage of people with genetic disorders, but if our touchy-feely society of special snowflakes insists on indulging the gender confused, that should address any reasonable concerns they have without stripping the majority of privacy and safety.