New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) thinks giving transgender children the right to choose what bathroom they want to use would just make life too complicated for them.
Christie, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, was asked about the issue in New Hampshire Monday in reference to a California law that allows transgender K-12 students to choose which restroom they want to use, according to CNN. Christie joked that the rules for requiring which restrooms to use were simple in his home state.
"Men go to men's rooms, women go to women's rooms and there really shouldn't be a whole lot of confusion about that -- public accommodations. And I don't think we should be making life more confusing for our children," he said. "The fact though is that we want our kids not to have to decide which bathroom they get to go in. And not to be subject to peer pressure about which one to go in. And not to be subject to the embarrassment that could come with going in a bathroom where somebody maybe doesn't agree that they should be in there or not."
"Why do we do this to our children? It doesn't make any sense," he continued. "So I don't know. I'm the common sense guy from New Jersey, you know, I don't think life needs to be this complicated. I think it needs to be a lot more straightforward."
Christie isn't the only Republican to come out against transgender restrooms. Former neurosurgeon Ben Carson suggested last month that transgender people should have separate restrooms because "it is not fair for them to make everybody else uncomfortable." Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has joked that he wished he could have "found his feminine side" in high school so he could shower with girls.
Places that have passed anti-discrimination measures based on gender identity have not seen an increase in bathroom assaults. There is currently no federal anti-discrimination law based on gender identity.
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