My alma mater just installed a Transgender-Accomodating Restroom. According to the article, several universities have done the same.
Now, what people do in the bathroom (public or private) is of even less interest to me than what they do in their bedrooms, so I could really care less if Kent decides to put in these types of accommodations. If it makes some people feel safer, then right on.
But…is going to a public restroom when you have the appearance of one gender and the mechanics of another really a huge problem? In a woman’s restroom, you go into a stall and you could pretty much pee standing on your head and no one would know. In a men’s restroom I do realize they have urinals which aren’t really the optimal thing to use for a woman who identifies as a man…but all the men’s restrooms I’ve seen have stalls because, well…lots of men need to sit down to do whatever business they’ve come in there to do.
What would be some of the arguments for getting your school or workplace to install/change a gender-neutral restroom? Who would be the people that would want it - the transgendered or the people who are freaked out by transgendered people? And if someone identifies with a “different” gender why wouldn’t they prefer to use the restroom that helps facilitate their identity rather than going to a restroom that pretty clearly states the idea that they are transgendered?
I’ve wondered the same thing, and the only thing I’ve come up with is that the new bathrooms aren’t really built for the benefit of the transgendered – they’re built for the benefit of others who don’t want to share a bathroom with the transgendered. In other words, if a transgendered female was using the women’s bathroom, the other women might complain. I don’t know if that’s the reason but it’s the only one I could think of.
Of course, in some public places, unisex bathrooms are convenient for parents of opposite-sex toddlers – I wouldn’t have to take my 3-year old girl into the men’s room, for example. But generally these are only for one person (or party) at a time, and that’s not what we’re talking about.
Those women, like the women who “hover” so that their precious asses won’t come in contact with the dirty filthy germy toilet seats, need to GET OVER IT. So someone with slightly different plumbing from yours is using a different stall in the same restroom that you’re using. As long as they don’t leave pee on the toilet seat or anything like that, what’s the big freaking deal?
In all the public women’s restrooms I’ve been in, everyone went into the stall fully clothed and came out the same way, with the stall door closed the whole time in between. We don’t have urinals or anything like that. It’s not like the scary ohmigod MEN are going to see anything in the restroom that they couldn’t see outside the restroom. :rolleyes:
Most private homes you visit have gender-accomodating rest rooms.
They are common enough in Europe in public places like airports. A row of sinks, and row of little rooms with toilets.
I haven’t heard of anywhere near here adopting transgender restrooms. What I’ve seen that I think is wonderful is “family restrooms” in malls and such - one room affairs in addition to the male and female ones where you can take an opposite gender child or somebody in a wheelchair or anybody who for one reason or another is more comfortable there than in the strict gendered restrooms. Very nice.
I’ve never understood why restaurants and places like that which have one room restrooms designate them by gender. Why wait on the ladies room when you could just call them both “folks”?
On occasion I will find myself in a restaurant or store that is sufficiently small that its “Men’s” restroom and its “Women’s” restroom are nothing more than two identical, separate, lockable, single-user rooms. Exactly like the room in my house.
I’m a guy and If the “Men’s” restroom is being used and the “Women’s” is not, I’ll use the “Women’s” room. Why not? I don’t pee on the seat and I’m tidy so what’s the difference? You should see some of the looks I get when I leave, though…
There’s a pizza place downtown which has single-fixture restrooms (nothing but a toilet and a sink in the whole room, with a lock on the door). They’re labelled “Either” and “Or”.
But why should that be worse than other women hearing them tinkle and fart?
And it’s not as if these people are men who identify as men and act socially as men. They’re people who present themselves as women, but that happen to have some equipment that most women do not have. Why should the presence or absence of a penis make such a difference to who hears you fart or tinkle?
Anne Neville, while I agree a certain amount of getting over it is necessary, I can also relate a little bit. If you have been attending meetings with John in Accounting for years and consider him a male, finding him in the women’s restroom at whatever stage in his transgender process he decides that’s the place to go will be a bit disconcerting. More restroom privacy is overall a good thing, IMHO.
And Shamozzle, while I like most women can relate to your predicament, I can also understand why you get looks. At one of the local universities, a man hid in the women’s restroom and sexually assaulted multiple women there. This resulted in the installation of panic buttons in the restrooms across the campus. A situation like that is no joke, and I hope you are respectful of women surprised to find you there.
A company I worked for in Illinois in the '90s added on to their warehouse. The entire warehouse staff was male, so to make things more convenient, the company wanted to add 2 seperate bathrooms, both non-gendered (but really both men’s rooms).
The building codes in Illinois required that if there were 2 bathrooms, one had to be marked as men’s and one as women’s. You couldn’t have 2 gender neutral bathrooms. Of course, rather then marking them that way, and letting the guys use both of them, the company decided, when they learned this, to just put in 1 bathroom. :dubious:
I was in a line of guys waiting in a gas station or restaurant for the restroom. There were two restrooms with one toilet & sink each, and locking doors. One door was marked “Men” and the other, “Women.”
The women’s restroom was open… No women to be seen anywhere… yet none of the guys would use the restroom labeled “Women.” I asked if anyone was going to use it, and they all shook their heads “no” and chuckled a bit.
I stepped out of the line, did my thing in the “Women’s” restroom, and left. I got some funny looks on the way out. I don’t think I copromised anyone’s sense of safety.
I think this has more to do with Male/Female cleanliness when it comes to using other peoples (especially commercial venues) restrooms.
I can’t comment on what the Females get up to but the men like to drop and run so to speak. If no one sees you leaving then that mess aint yours.
I can only assume the female of the species actually uses a little more care and sensitivity then the male.
Leaving only one nightmare toilet to face for the cleaner when she comes in the following morning.
If they were both labelled “Folks” she would have two to face and no lady in her right mind would use it.
Nah. You’ve not kept up to speed (ETA: you’re too new to) with previous toilet threads. Many reliable sources have told us that women are pigs in public restrooms. At least men don’t draw graffiti on the wall using a tampon as the world’s bluntest and rankest fibre-tip pen. :eek:
I (and pretty much anyone else who has regularly cleaned public restrooms) will tell you that the ladies’ room is always nastier. Fewer surprises in the toilet in the ladies’, but the overall cleanliness is much worse.