Manipulate much?

The New York Times tells us of a man who deliberately went into a women’s toilet and brags about it to adoring journalists. The Times of course presents his intrusion rather differently.

A transgender woman was arrested at the Florida State Capitol last month after she used a bathroom there to protest a state law that blocks transgender people from using a rest room that aligns with their gender identity.

Or to put it another way, a man who claims to be a “transgender woman” used a women’s bathroom to protest a state law that forbids men to use women’s rest rooms. It doesn’t sound quite so right-on-ish put that way, does it.

It almost doesn’t matter how the Times words it, though, because of how the Times illustrates it. At the very top of the page, between the subhead and the lede, we get a sweet tender photo of the darling vulnerable young lassie.

That is a very carefully chosen photo. The innocently parted lips – the wide eyes – the fluffy hair – the strappy undershirt – golly gee, one doesn’t know whether to cuddle her or rape her.

The transgender woman, Marcy Rheintgen, 20, said on Sunday that she had intentionally broken the law. Civil rights experts said that this was the first known case of someone being arrested for challenging a law that bans transgender people from using bathrooms in government buildings that do not align with their gender at birth.

Ms. Rheintgen said she had been feeling emotional about what she described as dehumanizing language used by elected officials to talk about transgender people when the idea came to her: “What if I just broke the law because the law is so stupid?”

I wonder if Mr Rheintgen paused for a single second to think about how women might be feeling about men like him using our bathrooms.

So anyway he went to the Florida House office building and found the second floor women’s bathroom.

Two police officers spoke to Ms. Rheintgen outside the bathroom and told her that she would be given a trespass warning if she entered, according to an arrest report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The police had seen a copy of Ms. Rheintgen’s letter, said the report, which used male pronouns to refer to her.

The report used male pronouns to refer to him because he is a male. He is a male. His fantasies about himself are his own business, but he has no right to impose them on women who just want to use the god damn toilets without self-obsessed men intruding on them…or spying on them or assaulting them.

Oddly enough the Times doesn’t say anything about that. All the compash is for the guy who makes pouty face.

There are 14 other states that ban transgender people from choosing their own bathroom, but those apply only to some — not all — government buildings and schools.

Nadine Smith, the executive director of Equality Florida, a L.G.B.T.Q. civil rights organization, said in a statement that Ms. Rheintgen’s arrest was a “deliberate erosion of human dignity.”

Oh is that so? Well what about the human dignity of women? Why do you not give a fuck about that?

I don’t suppose we’ll ever find out.

Updating to add:

Wait a second.

It occurred to me to wonder why I didn’t notice any beard traces, so I took another look at the photo, and – there’s an oddity. Am I imagining it? I don’t think so. The part of the face where the beard would be looks bleached. Photoshopping gone wrong? Even the tip of his nose is too pale.