Bathroom laws; medical errors; motorcycles

Bathroom laws

Laws that require transgender people to use bathrooms of the gender on their birth certificates have thrown logic out the window. There’s no foolproof way to tell a person’s birth gender by looking at external appearances.

Will we have bathroom police inspecting genitalia to determine which bathroom we should use? Wait a minute! That won’t work for people who have undergone sex-change procedures.

Of more concern is the confusion created by people who look like they are in the “wrong” bathroom. We won’t know whether a male-appearing person in the women’s room was born female or is a male sexual predator masquerading as a transgender person.

Conversely, a female-appearing transgender person in the men’s room could be subjected to ridicule or could even be at risk of sexual assault.

Transgender people should be allowed to use the facility they feel most comfortable with. Laws against that are yet another example of government intrusion into our private lives.

Unelected groups like the American Family Association are writing laws to solve problems that just don’t exist.

I’m 67 years old and I’ve been using beloved public restrooms in many states without a problem. There has not been a single case of a transgender person arrested for a restroom crime. Not one.

And the AFA, with the help of conservative politicians, has to stir up this total ridiculousness across the U.S. The unintended consequence will be closure of public restrooms by corporations.

Come on, people! This is not an issue, so don’t make it one.

Medical errors

The study on deaths due to medical care is flawed and an example of someone seeking celebrity based on flawed scientific data. (See Thursday editorial “Medical error rate high, solutions needed.”)

If the study is looked at closely, it includes deaths of elderly people after surgery that is attempted to save their lives.

One way to lower this number would be to refuse care to anyone who could die in a year, but this would leave sick, injured patients miserable for the last days of their lives.

So when reporting unsubstantiated data the full information should be available.

Motorcycles

Re the Thursday editorial “Share the road with motorcycles”: Out on the roads we should be diligent about all traffic, especially motorcycles.

But what about how some motorcyclists drive, especially ones riding the sport cycle type? High speeds, weaving in and out of traffic, passing between cars.

Motorcyclists must be responsible, too. They can’t drive like idiots and expect the rest of the world to look out for them.

This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Bathroom laws; medical errors; motorcycles."