Doing a less than admirable job trying to come off as a Democratic precinct captain, NBC’s Late Night host Seth Meyers blasted transgender bathroom laws early Wednesday as akin to Jim Crow laws creating white and black bathrooms and suggested that supporters are Disney villains like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.
In stating his support for gender neutral bathrooms, Meyers promised that young boys and girls co-mingling in bathrooms and locker rooms would cause no additional problems than what already takes place when children share a ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese.
Meyers began by giving a shout-out to Attorney General Loretta Lynch for issuing a letter on Friday to all public schools demanding they allow transgender individuals to use the bathrooms that they please.
Willingly falling into the same trap that The Washington Post’s Petula Dvorak did on Tuesday, Meyers complained about the fact that there’s a debate at all but suddenly arrived at his own explanation for all this.
“Well, it turns out this move is nothing new. In fact, fighting over bathrooms is the oldest move in the Prejudice Playbook and if you're not into books it's also available as a digital download. America has a long history of using bathrooms to scare people,” he whined as the leftist crowd chuckled.
Providing some leftist history, he explained that “[s]eparate bathrooms for men and women began in the 1800s when women started working in factories” and “[w]omen needed bathrooms whereas men were shocked to learn that women even used bathrooms” since “[t]hey just assumed back then that everything women ate turned to babies.”
He continued by linking conservatives to Jim Crow law supporters (which MRC intern Maggie McKneeley recently found BuzzFeed has done too) and later those fearful of people with AIDS in the 1980s:
Now, after the Civil War, Jim Crow laws forced African-Americans to use different bathroom than white Americans and then, in the 1980s, there was a movement to keep gay men from using public restrooms, because people were afraid they'd catch AIDS from a toilet seat.
The humorless comic/liberal pundit then mounted what’s perhaps the most asinine defense of men and women being allowed to roam freely in bathrooms and locker rooms together:
First of all, these guidelines are not forcing boys and girls to shower together. Second of all, anywhere 7-year-olds co-mix, it's going to be chaos. Have you ever been inside a chuck E. Cheese? It's like wearing a pair of sirens as headphones. That's why we throw those little [EXPLETIVE] in the ball pit, but it turns out, that's another classic move used against minority groups, painting them as child predators. Just ask gay men. For decades, they were barred from being teachers or scout leaders even though study after study has shown there is zero correlation between being a child molester and being gay.
Meyers added that the bigger problem is redesigning bathroom stalls so no one can peek inside them could do everyone the most good before going onto describing the concern of conservatives as nothing but “an age-old scam” that “doesn't make you a protector of children, it makes you a villager in a Disney movie.”
After showing a clip of the Beauty and the Beast villain Gaston urging villagers to “kill the beast,” Meyers suggested that trans people are who should deserve protection and the idea that allowing them in whichever bathroom they identify with “is a lie and worse, it's not even a new lie” but “the oldest lie in the book.”
The relevant portions of the transcript from NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers in the early hours of May 18 can be found below.
NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers
May 18, 2016
12:42 a.m. Eastern
SETH MEYERS: The White House on Friday sent a letter to the nation's public schools with guidelines for how to treat transgender students and officials in Texas and North Carolina immediately lashed out against them. It's the latest chapter in the battle surrounding bathroom bills. Laws some states are passing requiring trans people to use public restrooms that correspond to the gender on their birth certificate instead of the one with which they identify. To find out more, let's take A Closer Look. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] So last week, Attorney General Loretta Lynch sent a letter to America's school districts outlining the new guidelines and not everyone was excited to get it, especially Texas Governor Greg Abbott who tweeted, “I announce today that Texas is fighting this. Obama can't rewrite the Civil Rights Act. He's not a king.” Oh, yeah? If he's not a king, then why does he have a jester? [LAUGHTER] But why — why is everyone arguing about bathrooms now? Well, it turns out this move is nothing new. In fact, fighting over bathrooms is the oldest move in the Prejudice Playbook and if you're not into books it's also available as a digital download. [LAUGHTER] America has a long history of using bathrooms to scare people and it makes sense because bathrooms are pretty scary to begin with. You're cut off from the world, your pants are down, the lighting is terrible. Nobody is excited for a curveball in the bathroom and politicians are happy to exploit that fear, but first, a little history. Separate bathrooms for men and women began in the 1800s when women started working in factories. Women needed bathrooms whereas men were shocked to learn that women even used bathrooms. They just assumed back then that everything women ate turned to babies. Which is why, true story, to this day, we call children little [EXPLECTIVE] [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] A historical fact. You can take that with you. But now, thanks to that, we have men and women's bathrooms in this country, which is why no woman has ever seen the top of act two at a Broadway show. Now, after the Civil War, Jim Crow laws forced African-Americans to use different bathroom than white Americans and then, in the 1980s, there was a movement to keep gay men from using public restrooms, because people were afraid they'd catch AIDS from a toilet seat. Of course, that can't happen, but based on the last time I was waiting for a bathroom at a restaurant, the thing people are catching on toilet seat is an entire episode of Game of Thrones on their iPhone. [LAUGHTER] Dude, there's like seven of us waiting out here! Wrap it up. So telling a minority group that they're not allowed to use the same bathroom everyone else uses is a well-worn strategy used to make minorities feel like crap, pun intended, but proponents of the so-called bathroom bill don't want you to see their bills as prejudice. They want you to think they're trying to protect the children.
(....)
MEYERS: First of all, these guidelines are not forcing boys and girls to shower together. Second of all, anywhere 7-year-olds co-mix, it's going to be chaos. Have you ever been inside a chuck E. Cheese? It's like wearing a pair of sirens as headphones. That's why we throw those little [EXPLETIVE] in the ball pit, but it turns out, that's another classic move used against minority groups, painting them as child predators. Just ask gay men. For decades, they were barred from being teachers or scout leaders even though study after study has shown there is zero correlation between being a child molester and being gay. However, there's a 100 percent correlation between being a child molester and wearing these glasses. [LAUGHTER] That's just science. Also, if everybody is so worried about creeps in bathrooms, why don't we just redesign the stalls? It's like those things were built to a pervert's specifications. “I'd like to be able to look over it, slide my head underneath it and if you can give me an inch peek gap on the door, that would be perfect.” [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] Oh, I live, I live for that moment of unwanted eye contact. “Everything going okay in there? [LAUGHTER] You good on paper?” [LAUGHTER] When conservatives claim that trans people are preying on children and that they shouldn't be allowed to use the bathroom they want to use, it's not a response to an actual problem, it's an age-old scam used to mobilize people against a vulnerable minority group, but attacking someone who is different than you doesn't make you a protector of children, it makes you a villager in a Disney movie.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST’s GASTON: I say we kill the beast!
MEYERS: You know who actually needs protection? Trans people. 25 percent of trans Americans have lost their jobs because their identity. 20 percent have been homeless at some point. 19 percent have been denied health care and 70 percent of trans people have experienced some form of harassment in a public bathroom.
(....)
MEYERS: The idea that trans people are a dangerous presence in bathrooms or a threat to our children is a lie and worse, it's not even a new lie. It's the oldest lie in the book. This has been A Closer Look. [APPLAUSE]
