Sadly, I side with Ben Carson on the right of privacy in the rest room.
The issue ought not to be what what gender is somehow given by God, by birth or even by choice. The real issue should be the how can we balance the right of privacy against our respect for differences?
There are very obvious ways to solve the real problems of BOTH privacy and access to restrooms without creating a law that equates a man who wants to be seen as a woman with the right, her or his right, to intrude on the sexual ;privacy of others. For example, in the business place restrooms usually consist of a room with a toilet. These can simply be made “all.”
The more difficult case is the schools, esp the athletic locker room. Biological transgender .. that is the presence of hermaphroditic sex organs … is, however very rare (about 3/1000). Surely we can give the girls in a locker room freedom from penises while solving this rare problem! Perhaps the students copujld jits be taught to be tolerant of kids who look like them but have a divergent gender identity? How is this different then treaching kids that they shoulds shower with other kids whese skin or diaabilities make them “different?” For that matter, I find it incomprehensible that an anatomically male or female person, regardless of their identification with a trans gender, would feel the need to expose their genitalia to people of the opposite sex outside of a consensual space.
Look at it this way. A few people choose to live in nudist camps.
from FACEBOOK” Richard Reuther Nicely done video. If small businesses (single toilet) simply made both bathrooms available to either sex (with a good lock on the door), a large part of the safety issue would be solved. Most of the rest of the objection would then just be fear based. I many places in Europe, the bathrooms are used by both sexes simultaneously. A row (or two) of toilets with tall, locking doors. Often there is an attendant (either sex) on duty.