The argument that bathrooms should not be gender inclusive is a relatively new one, as for much of American history, public restrooms, where multiple people have occupied a single space, were not the societal norm. The first law separating bathrooms by the sexes came in 1887 when Massachusetts passed a law that factories had to provide gender-specific restrooms for women in the workforce (Rhodan,) but other laws supporting this idea did not become common until the 1920s. The United States Of America has, for a time, taking a marked issue with implementing inclusionary practices into its legal protections for those who are not of the cultural majority. We can see evidence of this in landmark cases that involve discriminatory practices based upon a persons race (Loving v. Virginia )(Brown v. Board of Education)(Plessy v. Ferguson) marital status (Griswold v. Connecticut) and sexual orientation (Obergefell v. Hodges)(Lawrence v. Texas) In these cases, the Supreme either upheld long-standing societal norms or deemed
through thorough consideration that the central issues of each case were indeed a violation of personal protections provided to individuals under section 1 of the 14th amendment, which provides citizens of the United States equal protection under the law, the 4th amendment, which grants a reasonable expectation to privacy and protection from unreasonable search and seizure and the 9th amendment which grants protections to individuals not already outlined in the existing amendments. It is through analysis of the cases presented that one is able to draw parallels to the issue of whether the personal privacy of an individual, or group of people should be extended to what is considered to be one of the most private of places. Furthermore, with the issue of gender identity being at the forefront of the bathroom discussion, let us define what gender and sex mean in a modern context and how those who may not fit into the default categories may be affected by enforcing bathroom use for the sex you were assigned at birth.