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In the wake of Senate's passage of the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA), conservatives have latched on to a demeaning stereotype: that a transgendered person isn't real and that the bill would turn women's bathrooms into dens of sexual harassment. Enter Bill O'Reilly, who compared transgender women to a randy patron at Hooters. (Also: not all Hooters patrons are horny pervs!)
O'Reilly made the comparison on his show on Tuesday night when discussing a recent news story, and then extrapolated that into a moral argument of letting 12-year-old boys eat at Hooters. He took that opportunity to weigh in with his expertise about transgender people to commentator Alan Colmes. Part of that expertise involves comparing them to leery Hooters patrons:
O'Reilly: In — the transsexual in the locker room, in the bathroom, and all of that, you're fine with that. But you won't take the kid to Hooters...
[...]
O'Reilly: The way to deal with it is basically, look, if you're born a boy you stay in the boys locker room even though — and then when you're an adult you can go where you want. But this is what gets me about you — you, Colmes. You. You. You say no to Hooters, but yes to the transgender ...
Colmes tried to talk some sense into O'Reilly, but the latter was adamant in making this parallel of a woman's bathroom or locker room to a breastaurant:
Colmes: One is taking a 12-year-old to see 'T and A,' and the other is someone who happens to be of indeterminate gender because that's the way they're built. It's a different thing.
O'Reilly: Listen. If the guy goes into the girls' locker room, there's going to be what you just described! But you're ok with it!
Colmes: So a girls' locker room is like Hooters to you?
O'Reilly: Have you ever been in a locker room, Colmes?
Colmes: I actually have. Yes.
O'Reilly: They don't have chicken wings but — it's called a locker room for a reason. Do you see what I'm saying?
O'Reilly's depictions of female locker rooms, bathrooms, and transgender people make you wonder if he's actually familiar with any of them. That in mind, here's a brief list of the differences between Hooters, bathrooms, and locker rooms: