By most measures, 2015 has been a good year for the American LGBTQ community. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality. The Amazon series “Transparent,” which follows a family adjusting to a parent coming out as trans, dominated award shows. Gus Kenworthy, Kristen Stewart and Miley Cyrus all came out of the closet. 

Two transgender women, Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox, dominated reality television and the red carpet. Utah, the most conservative state in the country, with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+22—indicating that Utah tends to lean Republican at 22 points higher than the nation as an average—passed meaningful anti-discrimination legislation that included protections for both the LGBTQ community and for religious conscience.

However, all of that progress changed on the night of Nov. 3, when the city of Houston overwhelmingly voted against the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, also known as HERO, an act passed by the Houston city council in 2014 to end certain forms of discrimination in the workplace and public accommodations. The ordinance protected a variety of identities, including sexual orientation and gender identity. Texas is one of 32 states that lacks any anti-discrimination measures to protect the LGBTQ community while Houston is one of the most liberal congressional districts in the country and is the first city to have an out lesbian as mayor, Annise Parker. So what happened?

Opponents of HERO, an ordinance that would expand basic civil rights protections to all Houstonians, ran a campaign on one claim. That claim was the bathroom myth, or the argument that by giving basic rights to the LGBTQ community, Houston was opening the door to men preying on women and young girls in changing rooms and public restrooms.

Most people who are trans prefer to use the restroom that matches the gender they identify as. This can be especially important for trans people who have dysphoria or who have transitioned and would face violence if they used the restroom that corresponded with the gender they were assigned at birth. In 2015, presidential candidate and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee said, “I wish that someone told me that when I was in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in PE,” and implied that trans people, but especially trans women, are sexual voyeurs and predators. The Family Research Council, a group that opposes marriage equality and supports so-called conversion therapy for teenagers, claimed that allowing trans people to use the restroom that matches their gender identity would give male predators legitimate access to women and girls.

The evidence, however, does not line up. Vermont has had a similar law since 2001, and the state’s human rights commission has not had any reports of trans women using restrooms to assault or spy on cis women and girls. Both the Las Vegas police department and a Minneapolis police spokesperson said that their respective states have had no problems since the anti-discrimination laws passed while Alexa Priddy, director of the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said that claims that trans people are sexual predators, like the ones made by Huckabee and the FRC, are “creat[ing] fear.” At the same time, trans Americans do face violence and discrimination when they use public restrooms. A Williams Institute study cited in a Mic.com article from April 2015 found that around 70 percent of trans people have been harassed, denied entrance or physically assaulted when trying to use a public restroom. The study was based on 93 trans and gender non-conforming individuals in Washington, DC — Washington, DC has some of the most liberal public accomodations laws in the country and is small enough that it is relatively easy to contact the trans community, a community that is historically underserved and difficult to research. A trans woman told researchers that when she used the women’s bathroom with her female friends, she often would face verbal harassment from other women. Nine percent of survey respondents reported being physically assaulted when trying to use the bathroom that matched their gender identity. One of the trans men disclosed that he had been sexually assaulted in a men’s bathroom when an occupant realized that he was trans.

Trans people are the ones who face harassment and violence when they try to use the bathrooms that match their identity. The bathroom myth is not harmful because it is untrue. It is harmful because it implies that trans people — and really, the rhetoric only applies to trans women in this case — are confused men who are sexual predators. This, in turn, feeds into the myth that anyone who is transgender is either just confused or is actively trying to trick people. In reality, trans people are not confused about their genders or trying to trick anyone; studies have shown that even toddlers have a sense of their own gender identity.

Earlier this year, a stocky and bearded trans man named Michael Hughes posted a bathroom selfie with the caption “Do I look like I belong in women’s facilities? Republicans are trying to get legislation passed that would put me there, based on my gender at birth. Trans people aren’t going into the bathroom to spy on you, or otherwise cause you harm, #wejustneedtopee.” This simple hashtag perhaps sums it up best. Trans people are not predators. They are not confused. They just want to be treated with respect and dignity, the same thing that all Americans expect in life.