James Finn
Nov 1, 2022

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I'm publishing a story tomorrow that, while not quite the same song, strikes some of the same notes.

A young woman walks into a public restroom and is badgered, harassed, and bullied while she's inside a stall relieving herself.

The bully has mistaken her for a transgender woman, apparently because of her dress and hairstyle. The bully is convinced that the gender binary is important, that she can recognize gender when she sees it, and that it's her job to enforce gender standards.

Ironically, her very act of misidentifying the human being she's dealing with serves to undermine her insistence on binary reality.

There's a lot more to the story, and I don't want to say too much, but the worst part is that the bully later admitted she thought she was harassing a child. Which ... wow.

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James Finn
James Finn

Written by James Finn

James Finn is an LGBTQ columnist, a former Air Force intelligence analyst, an alumnus of Act Up NY, and an agented but unpublished novelist.

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