The Harland Highway - 768 - The Transgender bathroom debate.

Episode Date: May 19, 2016

Today Harland talks about the pros and cons of removing signs from bathrooms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Okay, whoa. Put your seatbelt on. Transgenders, straight, gays, everybody. Today's podcast, very, very unique. Hello, I'm Harlan Williams. This is the Harland Highway podcast. Today, I got off on a little, you know, I started talking about the transgender issue and the public bathrooms and the whole debate that's raging around in the country right now about. where we should be allowed to go to the bathroom and who should be allowed to enter certain bathrooms. And there's aspects of it that I support that I think should be looked at. And there's aspects of it that I think are quite dangerous and not realistic and possibly harmful. But it's one of those sensitive topics because it's like, well, who's it harmful to? Is it harmful to the transgender or is it harmful to the rest of the citizens of the country? And so,

And so in today's podcast, I try to talk about the balance, try to talk about, you know, finding a rational route to figuring out this complex issue, trying to find a fair and nice way to make it all work out so that somehow everyone can be happy. Because right now I think everything's being rushed and people are getting bent out of shape. So let's check it out. This is the Harlan Highway. What am I? What is this?

Some kind of a joke or something? Welcome to the Harland Highway. What you're talking about words? Son, you got a panty on your head. Shut up and sit down, you big ball fuck. Oh, God, what's happening here? What's happened? Hey, Harland, it's Shelby.

You just made a wrong turn. On to the Harland Highway. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other thing. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard. That is fantastic. Yeah. What's wrong with everybody in this crazy place? The Harland Highway.

What is it? The opening. To what? To another dimension. This is Harland Williams. You're a bad man. You're a very bad man. That is fantastic.

Well, we have a situation here in America where people aren't sure where they should go to the bathroom anymore. We have a society of transgendered people who, you know, want to go in whichever bathroom they prefer. And the rest of us are just supposed to kind of throw our hands in the air and go, okay, I guess I'm okay with my eight-year-old daughter in a public restroom and there's a man next to her. or a someone who used to be a man or someone who's going through the process of becoming a man or a woman that's becoming a man or a man that's becoming a woman I'm so confused it's driving me nuts

but uh boy oh boy what a what a crazy ass debate this is now I'm not transgender and if I you know I always go to the argument And, well, if I had a kid that was born transgender, I'd want my, you know, I'd love my kid just like I'd love any other kid. And I'd want my kid to have the same rights as every other kid. But it's touchy, man. I mean, I don't know what the number is on transgendered people in America or even on the planet. But if there's 350 million Americans, citizens in the United States, I'm.

guessing. I should probably do some research, but I can't imagine. There's more than 10 or 20,000 transgendered people in America. I could be wrong. It could be a million. Even if it's a million, even if it's half a million, even if it's two million. You know, it's not a big portion of the population and I guess what's going on with this situation with the transgendered is you know I've been watching the news and in North Carolina or South Carolina or whatever state it is they're in a situation where they're just taking signs off of restrooms and people are just allowed to walk into any restroom anywhere in any public building any any workplace any state

any bus station and I'm like I'm sorry man okay there's some some things where you just got to separate people and my point about they're not being very you know all that many transgendered people it's it's down to this mentality where is the rest of the country supposed to bow down to a minute minority of people Do we risk losing our privacy? Do we risk losing our, you know, being able to go to the bathroom and not having to run into someone of the opposite gender? Good Lord, man.

And do you want anyone to be discriminated against? No. Do we want people to feel left out and put out no? but sometimes, you know, you live in a world where a very minute group of people shouldn't be dictating the behavior of the masses. One million people, if there's that many trans genders, and I don't believe there is, because if there are,

that's a hell of a lot. One million people should not be dictating the behavior of, you know, 300 other million people. I'm sorry, if it makes life a little bit more awkward or weird, then, you know, you made the decision to change your sexual orientation. You didn't have to do it, you did it. And because you made a decision to do something, it shouldn't mean you should be allowed to force everyone else

to have to change their patterns to suit your patterns. It's not about discriminating and being against people, but come on, man, let's be fair here. I don't have kids and I'm already uncomfortable. I don't want to walk into the men's room and see a seven-year-old girl. I don't want to read stories in the newspaper. about children that run into problems in the bathroom or even adults?

I mean, you know there's going to be confrontations. Can you imagine someone who's a transgender walking into a restroom full of rednecks somewhere? Or who knows what kind of conflicts could happen? Can you believe that we're in a world. where there's no bathroom signs on the door and men and women are just going out willy-nilly and peeing and pooping and, you know,

making noise around each other. And I don't know, man. You know, we're all for people's liberties and nobody should feel singled out. But, you know, you can't freaking accommodate everybody, can you? I get it. I don't know, man.

I just, I can see, I just smell trouble coming. And on a personal note, you know, I don't want to walk into the men's room and see a woman in there or what I think is a woman or is not a woman or maybe it's a transgender or maybe it's some pervert dressing up. I mean, let's be honest, gang. We don't live in a society full of angels. We live in a society where there's a lot of sexual deviancy and a lot of sexual perversion. You read about it every freaking day, man. And bathrooms are that one sanctuary where there's a division between the genders, I think, for a good reason. Not only for privacy and, you know, women are a lot more delicate.

I'm sure a woman's bathroom is a lot cleaner and quieter, if you know what I'm. I mean, and prim and proper? I mean, ladies, do you really want to be sitting on the toilet and a 300-pound truck driver that smells like sweat comes in and takes a 15-pound Denny's dump in your bathroom? Well, you're sitting there? And that may sound harsh, but I'm just being real. Do you want a man standing in your bathroom,

a truck driver shaving his beard, washing his armpits, scrubbing the skid mark out of his underpin? Who knows what? What if your little girl is sitting on the toilet, your eight-year-old little angel, and some soccer player from somewhere, is feeling a little randy, and it's in the stall right next to her,

masturbating. Uh-oh, then what? Gee, I'm glad we accommodated everyone and took the signs down. It's just going to be a chaotic pool of nuttiness. And we're living in this society where it's like,

holy smokes, man. It's like you go out of your way to accommodate. things, but the rest of us are entitled as a right, as a course of dignity. We're also entitled, us people that aren't transgender, and I'm not knocking the transgenders. Look, if you're trapped in another body or another sexuality, that's got to be a tough place to live.

I get it. But aren't we, the rest of us, the massive, the giant mass majority that aren't in that frame of mind? Aren't we entitled to some privacy, to some sanctuary? I don't know. Do men want to, I don't know. It's just messy. And what's interesting is it's getting forced on, it sounds like it's getting forced on the states. You know, the people aren't allowed to vote. It's just being forced. From now on if transgender can walk,

everyone can walk into any bathroom they want. Boom, that's a lot. We're just forcing it. And, you know, now the government's suing South Carolina, I mean, the effort they're putting into this transgender bathroom thing, you know, if Obama put as much effort

into annihilating ISIS that he's putting into destroying any kind of bathroom civility you know maybe the world would be a better place if we focused on the right things

and it disturbs me that you know rock and roll bands like Springsteen and all these other big big bands are pulling out they're canceling their concerts because of because of bathrooms

where people pee and poo, big companies are abandoning their desires to build and make their corporate headquarters in these states. Like PayPal has abandoned its desire to build its headquarters over a trend, over the bathroom issue? It's a little startling, man. And so it's like, okay, so we do have a bathroom issue. You know, in government and in society and whenever, you know, civil rights, which took a long time to get sorted out,

gay rights that are still being sorted out, transgender rights, which is something kind of new to most people, to be honest, five years ago, we weren't really talking about the transgender's all that much, and now here they are. Okay. But let the dust settle. Let people have their pros and cons. Let people protest and let people be convinced and let people reject and let people take a stand, whether they're for or against it, but just don't like, don't everyone just like, you know, we're going to collapse the economy of South Carolina because they're not letting the people go to the bathroom where they want.

And we're going to pull the bands out and we're going to pull corporations out and we're going to vilify all the people and make them feel guilty like they're all discriminatory and they're all homophobic and they're all racist and they're all like, holy smokes, man. like let the arguments be heard there's no rush you know there's there's no fire to sort out the bathroom problem i mean yes it needs to be sorted out but but it doesn't need to be done tomorrow the government doesn't need to be suing the states you know it seems to me that a lot of things in the government take a hell of a long time but sometimes it's seems when people jump on a cause that they just have to push it through. And I've said this

before. Sometimes I feel like people push a cause, not because they give a damn about the cause, but because they want to look like they're morally superior. I'm very suspicious. A lot of these people just want to appear on the news and appear on Facebook that, oh, I've got such a conscience. I've got such a civil conscience and I'm so much more moral than you are. Okay, let's see how happy you are when you're the one sitting in the stall and the 300-pound truck driver comes and does the smelliest loudest dump you've ever heard right beside you. I bet there's a huge smile on your face, Mr. Morley and Mrs. Morley, conscious and aware. Hey, everybody. Who wants to have better sex?

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That's Harland, H-A-R-L-A-N-D at Adam and Eve. This is an exclusive offer specific to this podcast, so be sure to use this code Harland so you get your discount and 100% free shipping code Harland. Have fun. Don't throw your back out. Look, everyone deserves a fair shake at the stick. The transgenders deserve a fair debate. They deserve to be heard. Their voices, everyone's voice deserves to be heard fairly, honestly and openly. But because a state has a knee-jerk reaction and says, hey, we're not taking the signs off our bathrooms. Okay, take the time to sort it out. Maybe let the people talk about it a little longer. Maybe let the people vote about it. Maybe let's hear from some of the

transgender people and see how they feel? Why is the government doing all this stuff? Why is the government forcing it down everyone's throat? It just seems wrong. I'm not against the trans genders and their cry to use the bathrooms. What I'm against is that it just feels like a small group of people are trying to stuff it down everyone's throat. And they're so busy considering the feelings of the transgender.

people who have legitimate feelings, that they're not considering the feelings of the mass majority of other people that might be uncomfortable with this scenario. And it's not as easy as just forcing one side to do, you know, to do the thing. It's not as easy as saying, okay, from now on, transgender can go wherever they want. And it's not as easy as just ripping the signs that identify restrooms off the wall And letting people go in and out wherever they want You know that's going to lead to trouble And the other option is, well, why don't we just build a neutral bathroom?

You know, a lot of places have them. Airports have them. You know, places like Starbucks and, you know, a lot of restaurants have like a neutral multi-gender bathroom and those work but those you know if you wanted to put one of those in every business and every freaking airport and every city that that would cost you the taxpayer billions of dollars to do that across the country from coast to coast and so i think as much as the transgender people have their needs and desires so did the rest of us so does everyone else.

And, you know, this, this issue, I don't know how long it's been hanging around, but it feels like it came up very recently, like within the last month. And all of a sudden to see these band, these big bands that can generate income for the community and are ripping off their fans by saying, well, we're not going to come to your city because, you know, 200 people can't go pee or poo where they're, want. Okay, well, what about all the people who you're hurting by not doing your concert or not opening your business or your corporate headquarters? Why is everyone being so rash? What is the, what is this speedy agenda to get this pushed through? We live in a democracy where people

should be allowed to talk and voice, and, you know, they'll go out and they'll, you know, the environmental groups who I love, if there's a slug or a woody owl or the yellow-crested wood tit is displaced from a forest, they'll do like a seven-year study to see if the common ground squirrel is displaced when they cut down. trees for the timber companies and and these are long long you know detailed studies and and they take time man and that's when you're talking about a you know an endangered species of bird which is great it's great to investigate this but now you're talking about look I get really animated when you deal them with the you know

the the the health and safety and well-being of little boys and little girls. Because God knows we've also had enough and have enough, you know, creepy sexual predators out there that are just opportunists. They're like hyenas circling the herd, looking for the opportunity to go in and make a kill. And, you know, if you don't believe me, go on the internet and there's a site where you can type in your neighborhood and it will light up, okay, it will light up and identify how many sexual deviance and sexual child perverts

live in your area. I think you'll be surprised what you see. And to open up the bathrooms to these types of people is just kind of like an invitation for trouble. I'm not saying the transgender people have deviant or perverted desires or inclinations. But I'm just saying in opening up the bathrooms, does it not open it up for a lot of trouble? So anyways, I get a little feisty when I think that children, could be put in harm's way. And so I don't know what the answer is. And again, I'm not knocking the transgender community.

I actually find it quite fascinating and not to be insulting. I find it strange and mystifying and odd and baffling. I mean, just because that's not the wheelhouse I live in, but the concept or the idea of stripping out my private parts and exchanging them for the private parts of another gender is just, it's something I never would have thought of in my whole life. And I don't know if transgender people are tortured by this or maybe they're relieved by this, that they've come to the real.

You know, I don't want to be a girl. I want to be a man. Oh my God. I'm so relieved. Or is this a torturous journey? I imagine maybe it's a bit of both. And so I feel for that. I have compassion for that. I don't say that I find it odd in a mocking way. I find it odd in a very kind of bizarre. I can't identify it way. But, you know, the world's full of characters, man. There's bisexuals. There's gays. There's straight. There's hermaphrodites. There's, you know, people who like to do it with horses. I mean, sex and sexuality is like a three-ring circus.

But knowing that, there has to be some rules where we try to accommodate everyone and look out for the safety and concerns and health and morality of all of us. And you can't go around painting people that don't get on board or don't understand yet. that they're bad people and they should be guilty and they're homophobic and they're genderphobic and they're transgenderphobic and like give everything a chance to go through a process and settle down and let's hear from parents and parents who have children and and you know people have had bad experiences and good experience i i don't think we've heard all the dialogue and everyone's just like it's a mess so i don't know you guys feel You know, I'm trying to be fair and, you know, balanced to both sides here. But obviously, if you can hear my voice that right now, I'm, at the end of the day, I'm looking out for kids and people's safety before I'm looking out for the transgender community. I'm sorry, okay?

If we figure out a way to do it, that it works with the transgender community, great. But the first thing I got to know is that children, little boys, boys and little girls are safe. And I'm not accusing the transgender people once again of being predatory, but opening up the bathrooms for their cause could lead to that. And who knows? Maybe some transgender people are sexually deviant. I don't know. I'm saying some. Maybe three out of thousand. I mean, in every group, there's always the weird ones, right? And so anything to do with sexuality, you know, when you do something as drastic as changing your gender, you've got to figure within that crop of people, there's probably a few that aren't doing it because they're

so hell-bent on being a man or a woman, they're maybe doing it because it's a little erotic or something. I don't know. but it doesn't matter every single group on the planet gay straight lesbian transgender there's always there's always the troublemakers so i don't know i wish i wish it would just settle down and i wish i wish uh i wish people would you know not be suing states and and forcing people to take the signs off of bathrooms and you know what well Think about people coming from other countries as well, man. First of all, you're forcing it on American citizens who might not be comfortable with it.

But imagine people coming tourists from China or Japan or Korea or Russia, Taiwan, France, Germany. You know, what if they don't speak the language? And, you know, they walk into a bathroom and they're not prepared for it. so it's just everyone's got to you know settle down and and have a public forum and figure it out before people start punishing states for trying to protect their citizens or for trying to figure out a diplomatic way where everyone's happy let that process play out don't punish states oh we're not going to open our corporation man we're not we're going to cancel our concert we're we're not going to have a sports team blah blah blah it's like come on man it's not like people are

lynched and burned and you know give it time give it give it give it a beat and let it play out i'm sure i'm sure some kind of reasonable solution will be arrived at and that That's fair. That's all I'm saying. Let it, let it be fair. So there you go. Wow, look at this. I talked the whole freaking podcast about it. What the hell? What the hell's that all about? I've been talking so long now I've got to go pee, but I'm afraid to, I don't know. You know what? I don't want to go in that. I was going to go in that bathroom door to take a pee, but I don't know who's in that bathroom. So you know what? I'm just going to do it the way nature taught me to do it. I'm going to go pee behind those bushes over there, behind Denny's.

And that's the other thing they better think about, man. There are going to be people that are never going to be comfortable sharing a bathroom with the opposite sex. And you're going to get people preferring to piss in alleyways and piss in elevators and piss in stairwells and defecate places where you've never seen it before because people don't want to do that. You can't force people to share a bathroom with another gender. So that could lead to problems. That could leave to vandalism. That could lead to lawsuits.

That could lead to violence. That could lead to health issues. So you got to think about all that, too. I'll tell you what. If I'm being honest and I wasn't sure what was in. my bathroom it's easy for guys to go pee anywhere they want i might be inclined to skip the bathroom and go look for someone's alleyway or go behind a dumpster or you know yeah i think a lot of guys would so this thing's got to this thing's got to be played out properly and not

forced down the throats of states and citizens and countries and communities. Let the trans genders have their day to talk about it. Let the people who share the community with the transgenders have their say. Let the politicians freaking listen to all sides of the debate or the argument or whatever you want to call it and move forward accordingly, calmly, rationally, and most of all, fairly. I think we're smart enough in the United States of America to figure out a solution

so that nobody feels hurt, nobody's feelings are bent out of shape. Okay? Is that asking too much? Okay, I rest my case. I did the whole show about it. Boy, oh boy. oh sometimes you know it's supposed to be like a comedy a comedy podcast but sometimes i just i get fired up i go off i end up talking the whole show about one topic and some of you're like oh shit man

this sucks i wanted comedy and i apologize for those of you that feel robbed of this this comedy moment i'll make it up to you or maybe you're going you know i love the comedy but you know There was something just, you know, hearing this debate and talking about all this stuff. It was kind of cool, too, man. You know, made me think a little bit. So maybe, and maybe some of you are mad at me, you know, maybe there are people going, oh, my God, I can't believe, what's he saying about the trend? Well, let's listen to the whole thing again, because I'm trying to play it fairly to everybody.

I'm not against or prejudiced against anybody. but everything has to go through steps. There you go. Well, hey, thanks for being here on this very special episode of the Harland Highway, the transgender episode. I'm Sally and I'm David. And together, no.

Wow. Okay, well, hey, don't forget to check out Harlan Williams. If you want to comment on this at all, you can write me at harlemwilliams.com or if you want to leave me a phone message and keep the debate going or share your thoughts, whether you agree or disagree or happy or mad about what I said. I'm trying to keep it civil. I'm trying to have a civil conversation about it. 3-2-3-739-43-30. That's 3-2-3-7-39-43-30. There's only about two minutes on the answering service, and it takes about six rings before it picks up. So don't be discouraged and kind of know what you're going to talk about.

Don't go on too long, or you will be cut off. So you've got about two, two-and-a-half minutes to leave your reply. Maybe shorter than that. Maybe, you know, might start to get long, but just keep in mind you've only got so long on the automatic machine. So that's harloweems.com. The phone number is there also. 3237394330. And also, boys and girls, don't forget to stop in our little store.

We have a great little merch store at Harlowyms.com. purchase some great gift items and please get the app we have a premium membership the harland highway app which is on your cell phone just go to your app store type it in the harland highway you get the latest 50 episodes absolutely free and if you join the premium membership for twenty dollar you know halla you get almost 800 backlogged episodes of the harland highway You get my other podcast called Let's Have a Fight. You get stand-up clips live from my comedy shows. You get special interviews.

You get all kinds of cool stuff when you're a premium member. $20 a year. Wow. So there you go, gang. Hey, thanks for listening. I hope you got something out of this. And if you didn't, you know, maybe something was said that just gets the wheels spinning or makes you think about the whole issue.

Or maybe you're like, you know, I don't really give a fuck about that shit, man. So next podcast, you better be a motherfucking funny. Well, you have my word. Next podcast, we will get back to the funny and the silly. Thank you for indulging me. Have a great day. Keep on smiling.

And until next time, chicken. Chalman, baby.