"So why, therefore, did he make this "proclamation" at all? The only
reason I can find as an even possible explanation is that he wanted, quite
deliberately, for the House to come down publicly on the conservative side
of a very controversial issue, without the House APPEARING to dabble in
politics."
Well, actually, there is a very obvious alternative explanation. (Obvious, that is, to anyone
whose thinking has not been muddled by contemporary PC dogma.)
The overwhelming majority of people in this country, particularly women, do not want to
share a communal restroom (or locker room) with members of the opposite sex. (This
includes people who reside outside the State of North Carolina.) So, there are competing
sensibilities at work here: those of the transgendered, who want to use restrooms based on
their subjective gender identity; and those of biological women and men who don't want to
share a restroom with persons of the biological opposite sex. The latter sensibility is
entitled to at least the same consideration and respect as the former. Gelb chose the latter.
And given that the latter position undoubtably reflects the views of a large number of Met
patrons, if not the majority of them (particularly the women), I don't think one can say that
his choice was an unreasonable one. To suggest that it was based on a desire to cater to
"the conservative side" is loony, given Gelb's own left-wing leanings and the PC sensibility
demonstrated in his silly no-dark-makeup policy for Otello, Aida, Monastatos, and
(presumably) the Emperor Jones, Selika and the Marschallin's page in "Der Rosenkavalier."
Now, the practical enforceability of this bathroom policy - which, let us remember, is not a
radical new policy but merely a declaration of the continuation of the one that has been in
effect since the Met's inception - is another issue entirely. But then, the Met's policy of
people only sitting in the seat assigned to them on their ticket is not really enforceable,
either, in most cases. (As a great many Listers know and take advantage of.) Nor is their
policy of no recording during performances. (Ditto, to some around here.) But those
policies nevertheless each serve a valid purpose. As does Gelb's new Declaration of Potty
Rights.
MDW
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