Usually when someone speaks of something they can’t live without, they think of a person or a pet that means a lot to them. They say these things without a moment’s hesitation. These things are their lifeline. What means the most to them. It’s not that it’s a bad thing, I mean I have people I can’t live without either, I also have a wonderful dog that means the world to me, but there are still even more important things that mean everything to me. My thoughts on what I can’t live without benefits hundreds, even thousands of people in the United States and not just me. What I’ll be talking about in this free verse essay thing are my thoughts on LGBTQ+ rights and my love for the community as a whole.

More specifically in this essay, I’ll be talking about transgender (or gender queer) rights, especially when it comes to the bathroom discussion that is a hot topic today. People are arguing over if they should allow trans people to go to the bathroom that aligns with the gender they identify with, or force them to go to the bathroom of the sex they were assigned with at birth. Notice how I said “sex” rather than “gender” right here, for they are not one and the same. Genitals equals sex, gender equals how you feel on the inside. Male and female are quite different from man and woman, but that is an argument for another day.

This may seem quite off topic, but I promise, all of it is relevant. What I can’t live without just barely exists, but it can be a reality if people just set their minds to it. Trans rights are going to be the next big thing, just like how last year’s big thing was gay marriage finally being legalized. Gender neutral bathrooms are something that needs to exist and it really wouldn’t take that much to invest in such a thing. The arguments can stop over what bathroom that man with a beard who just happened to be born female should use, because he can just go to the gender neutral bathroom that has multiple stalls.

Of course, I believe that everything would be easier if people were just allowed to go to the bathroom that matches their gender, but that most likely won’t be happening anytime soon, especially at the rate North Carolina is going. These bathrooms that I am talking about may become a necessity for the trans community, just because a few people believe that they are going to the bathroom to be perverts rather than do what most people go to the bathroom to do: to use the restroom. Why would anyone think someone would go to the bathroom to creep on other people anyway? The bathrooms are highly unsanitary after all.

It’s highly unfair to the trans community if you punish them for something someone who is pretending to be a part of that group may do. That’s right, may. There have been no recorded incidents where a trans woman was in the bathroom to do anything other than her business.

So why, one may ask, do I believe in trans rights so much and why do I want this bathroom to be a reality? Well, my answer is simply this: I believe in this because this is a part of my daily life of being unable to go to the bathroom I wish to go to just because my gender doesn’t align with my sex. I believe so heavily in it because men and women are being told everyday that they aren’t “good enough” to pass as their gender. Trans rights are being stepped on everyday, made light of. Made to seem insignificant. The thing is, trans rights are what I cannot live without.