Meet Michael Hughes - the man who takes selfies in women's toilets.

This is how ridiculous it is when trans men are forced to use the bathrooms of their birth gender.

Michael Hughes, a transgender man, is taking selfies in female bathrooms to highlight the absurdity of laws across Canada and the U.S. which make it illegal for transgender men to use the men’s toilets.

The laws allegedly protect the “privacy and safety of women” – an utterly bizarre concept given that most women would feel confronted and perhaps unsafe in the presence of a large, strong and clearly male person apparently lurking in the female toilets.

And if it’s the privacy and safety of trans men, who some legislators insist on referencing by their birth gender, that the laws seek to protect, then the implications are even more outrageous.

A Bill in Texas seeks to deny trans men the right to enter male toilets, showers and changing rooms, with penalties of up to $4,000 or even a year in prison as punishment for non-compliance.

More frighteningly, any “operator, manager, superintendent or other person of authority” who allows a trans man to use the male bathroom, or a trans woman to use the female bathroom, could be liable for up to $10,000 in fines and a minimum of 180 days in prison.

When asked what the consequences of such stringent legislation would be for the trans community, a sponsor of a similar bill in Florida came out with this corker: “People are not forced to go to the restroom. They choose to go to the restroom.”

Conveniently, he forgot that when most people “choose” to use the restroom, they aren’t faced with a choice between extreme public discomfort and humiliation, the risk of a year in prison or an enormous fine, and urinating in their own pants.

Thankfully in Australia, transgender people are entitled to be treated as their preferred gender, including full access to bathrooms and change rooms. That doesn’t mean, however, that trans people in Australia don’t still face discrimination across the board.

Michael Hughes is a man and should be treated as such. Bills that seek to force him to adhere to a notion of gender decided at birth only punish and humiliate him and those around him. Trans lives matter – and nobody should feel uncomfortable or embarrassed about using public toilets.

Do you think trans men should be allowed to use male bathrooms? 

Read more: 

Australians’ transgender journeys continue as Caitlyn Jenner media storm subsides.

Transphobic blogger calls Caitlyn Jenner a “mentally ill cross-dresser”.

The true story of transgender people accessing health services is not pretty. And, it needs to change.