There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom!
May 12th, 2008 by Kim
Women: What if you walked into the ladies room and saw a person standing up to pee?
Men: What if you entered the men’s room and saw someone applying lipstick and mascara in the mirror?
According to an article in The Williams Record (my college paper), a group of students are asking the school to make campus bathrooms more welcoming to the transgender community by removing gender designations from all single-use restrooms. The students have the support of some senior staff members of the administration and would eventually like to see locker rooms modified (for more privacy for those who feel uncomfortable changing in front of others) and all campus buildings outfitted with gender-neutral restrooms.
It’s one thing to switch the signs on single-use bathrooms, but as the article acknowledges, adjustments beyond that are going to require more resources … and more acceptance from the community.
The public reaction to Thomas Beatie, a pregnant man who used to be a woman, indicates that the “T” in the GLBT acronym might very well be the hardest for our society to accept. As homosexuality is accepted gradually, transgendered individuals are still met with stares or awkward glances. Media still struggle with how to refer to transgendered people — whether to call them he and she, or “he” and “she,” or even he/she.
As more people now identify themselves as transgendered, there’s a new call to avoid separating people based on “male” and “female.” In one example, a former (mostly straight) dance club in Scottsdale, Ariz. transformed itself into the premier spot for the GLBT community following a widely-talked about 2006 incident involving the owner and a transgendered woman.
According to an article in The Arizona Republic, the owner asked the woman, Michele de LaFreniere, to leave the club after female patrons complained about men in dresses using the bathroom designated for women. De LaFreniere responded by filing a claim of sex discrimination with the Arizona attorney general, and the owner, Tom Anderson, became the subject of dozens of articles pitting him against the GLBT community.
(Anderson reopened the club in Dec. 2007 with a gender-neutral restroom and the place now caters to the GLBT community, attracting more than 700 patrons on Friday and Saturday night. Each.)
I’ll never forget walking into a multi-stall mixed-gender bathroom in a club in Beijing, which was attended mostly by gay men. In the stall to one side was my female friend; in the stall on the other side, a guy. The stalls were private; the bathroom was bathed in soft red lighting and the sinks with their basins of smooth stones and soft cascading water made you feel like you were washing your hands in a small waterfall. It was a weird experience, to say the least. But surprisingly, “uncomfortable” wasn’t one of the feelings that came to mind.
Many people would feel uncomfortable. Williams has a fairly open-minded student body, but even there, as with most places, you’ll likely find people who want to keep the women’s room for women and the men’s room for men.
Is our traditional way of thinking about gender confining? Are we ready for all things gender-neutral?
pic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_bathrooms
Tags: college, gender, GLBT, williams college
May 13th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Restrooms not for socializing. I go in, don’t make eye contact with people, do my business, wash up and go out…so a gender-neutral bathroom would be ok in most situations.
Last week, went into a men restroom at a park and a teenage girl was in there but I could tell she was helping her elderly dad or grandfather. She was embarrassed with me in there but hey, no problem.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:57 am
It’s probably safer for transgenders to use female bathrooms, because women are less likely to call them out and fight.
And mixed-gender bathrooms are a bad idea, because hearing a woman fart would ruin my world. Haha!
May 13th, 2008 at 8:32 am
When you gotta to go, you gotta to go.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:33 am
opps, gotta go
May 13th, 2008 at 9:40 am
You that’s a pretty good idea. I remember going to the clubs and girls would actually go into the mens restroom filled with guys cause they didn’t want to stand in their line. That’s another story but crazy none the less. Anyhoo, they have family restrooms, they should just create more family restrooms and place some generic restroom sign that can accomodate transgenders, handi-caps, familys, or anybody else.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:16 am
During the soldout UH-UW game, at halftime a young women just couldn’t wait, so her boyfriend led the way, and past the line in the men’s bathroom, and led her to a stall there. I’d say major points on the boyfriends part there.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:07 am
no way is america ready for gender-neutral bathrooms. i can see punks with low iq’s and small outlooks on the world waiting in these bathrooms for the right person to come along and jump them.
also, america still has racial and gender biases as it is now. seems like americans can’t handle the obvious physical differences between ethnic groups or genders. look at what america has turned the clinton-obama race into.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I wouldnt mind sharing a bathroom with a transgender as much as I would mind sharing one with a guy. Women’s restrooms are a sort of sanctuary, a safe place to go and have a quiet moment, while also accomplishing nature’s call.
And as much as franksabunch would hate to hear women farting - I’d rather hear that than any of the assorted gross noises guys make.
I say keep the women’s room for women (or guys who truly wish they were women).
May 14th, 2008 at 4:18 am
Kim,
Imagine yourself taking a huge, steamy dump in one stall, and in the next is the really hot guy you like.
I guess the idea could work, but I bet there would be a ton of people who just wouldn’t make use of the facilities purely out of insecurity or fear or some reason like that. Then there would be the people calling for more “single gender” bathrooms again and the whole thing would get out of whack.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:44 am
I could care less if i see a female using the same bathroom. I usually just do my thing and get out.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
haha… I bet the ladies out there don’t share the same feeling!
May 14th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
We had a unisex bathroom at my college in SF, it was interesting to say the least, but I dont think it caused many problems overall. It would be tough if a person you were interested in was in there with you though…
May 15th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
No worries in Korea. I walk in the men’s restroom and see ajuma cleaning while other men are standing at the urinals. I just turn slightly so she cannot sneak a peek.
May 17th, 2008 at 11:52 am
The ironies of the world in the 21st century.
Whereas in many countries around the world are having gender segregated buses & trains (to cut down on sexual harrasment), many ultra-liberal cities are having multi-gender bathrooms (in attempts to make the transgendered more comfortable)
Having everyone use the same bathroom would be a disaster. It would be an open season for harrassment and rape!
Let’s continue with the boys & girls bathrooms, and just add the “unisex bathrooms” for families w/ young children and the transgender. But to make it work, it would have to be one of those “one person at a time in the bathroom”