Still, the sheer length of time that Minneapolis’ ordinance has been on the books serves as perhaps the strongest piece of evidence to date refuting the widely circulated charge that similar LGBT protections somehow jeopardize the safety of others. From what those credited with the ordinance’s existence can remember, bathrooms – as a potential breeding ground for sexual assault or harassment – belong to a younger generation’s anti-LGBT playbook.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/how-minneapolis-became-the-first-city-the-country-pass-trans-protections
Note the ordinance allows any person "having a preference for such an attachment" where that attachment refers to an emotional attachment to another person. IOW, any male that merely prefers the idea that the women in a bathroom consensual have an emotional attachment to them is allowed in the women's bathroom. In sum, wanting to have sex with women makes it legal to enter their bathroom whether they consent to it or not, so long as you would prefer that they consent to it.
Rather absurd.
Also, the fact that some obscure law that almost no one (including the cops) likely no about is technically on the books doesn't mean much of anything. The only thing that matters is what the actual practice is. When men enter women's restrooms does no one in MN ever pay any attention and act like nothing is wrong? If not, then it proves such an ordinance means nothing and is unknown to the general public. It is likely that for these 40 years virtually all biological males that are not full-on transexuals (i.e, medical and hormones changing of biological sex) have been using men's bathrooms, and the reverse for biological females. Thus, nothing can be inferred from the past 40 years about any consequences that would arise if such ordinances became widely known and manifested in actual practice.
Also, the cited article makes up the following bullshit:
"no person has ever been sexually assaulted or harassed in a bathroom by someone who is transgender;"
They appear to have just pulled this "fact" out of their ass. But more importantly, it is an irrelevant strawman. The concern is not that actual transgender's would assault someone in the bathroom. The concern that has been expressed is about non-transgenders being able to enter women's bathrooms at will for the purpose of sexual assault. This concerns is based in the fact that there is zero objective difference between a transgender and a non-transgenders other than whether they choose to say at any point that they identify as a "X".
and no policy protecting LGBT people has ever provided legal cover to someone pretending to be transgender in order to attack another person in the bathroom. No policy ever would.
This is complete bullshit they have no evidence for. Such a law cannot give legal cover to a person who is arrested for actually attacking someone. Whether they had a right to be in the bathroom at all is a moot point once they are charged with actual assault. However, without such a "right", then before they ever attack, the moment the walk into the bathroom, they have done something wrong that would put all on alert and warrant their ejection. If those who are objectively and appear to all to be biological males must be accepted as having full access to women's restrooms, then such an early warning about a sexual predator is completely lost. There is no available data that would indicate that no man has never used such ordinances to enter women's rooms for criminal purposes, because if they leave without engaging in assault (such as because they realize their are too many other women in there), then it would never be known what their intent was and if the engage in actual assault then their use of the ordinance of cover to enter the room would never come up because it is moot to the issue of their actual crime.
Besides, as per my response to the prior point, the obscure unknown and unpracticed nature of the law means that how it has been used or abused in the past is irrelevant to what it would allow, enable, and make more likely if it became standard known practice to allow any man who wants to, to enter the women's room.
The bottom line is that the effect on non-trans males abusing the "right" for nefarious reasons hinges directly upon whether the "right" is widely known, practiced and emphasized as extending to any all people, no matter how biologically male they still are and look. These qualities have not been true up to now, and since NDOs haven't been used in this way, this leaves little room for non-trans men to abuse such rights.