News:

When one conveys certain things, particularly of such gravity, should one not then appropriately cite sources, authorities...

Main Menu

Transgenders and public restrooms

Started by Sandra Craft, March 04, 2016, 02:42:54 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Sandra Craft

I can't remember our ever discussing this one before, but it's been cropping up a lot lately on the web and seems nice and juicy.  My position is that while I find the bogey man of male predators in women's restrooms scary, I can't see how prohibiting transwomen from using women's restrooms will affect that in any way.  These seem to me separate issues. 

Anyone doing harassing or abusive things in a public restroom is breaking the law no matter what rationale they used to gain access: they're transwomen, they're cross-dressed males, they're bio-women or they're undisguised men just barging in.  Gender, however it's come by, does not give a pass to illegal actions.  And male predators are out there breaking the law already, it's not like they're sitting around passively waiting for transgender restroom rights to improve.  So making a fuss over transwomen (and that's were all the focus seems to be) isn't making public restrooms safer, it's just harassing transwomen.

Also, most transpeople tend to dress and look like the gender they identify with.  I can't see people like Laverne Cox or Buck Angel being able to use the "biologically correct" restroom without a great deal more havoc and trouble than if they just used the restroom suitable to their transgender.  As for the idea I've heard some put forward, of making separate trans restrooms available -- way to paint a target on someones back while wasting money and causing inconvenience to building owners at the same time.  Again, it seems more like a desire to punish people for not following fundamentalist social rules than a desire to protect women.

The third most common objection is "but women and girls will see penises!"  I've been using public restrooms for some 60 yrs, all while living in large, metropolitan cities, and I'm sure I've shared one many times with transwomen and probably also some male cross-dressers.  Never, ever have I seen anyone's genitals, male or female.  I'll go so far as to say that if you do see someone else's genitals in a women's public restroom it was probably because you were trying really hard to do that, so who's the pervert here? 

Here's a blog post from Love, Joy and Feminism that gets into it much better:  Conservative Rhetoric and Transgender Bathroom Battles

Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Nam

I find it's okay for adults as long as the Transgendered community is allowed to give their opinion about it. Doing it to children, however, could pose a problem for the children. Kids are bullied enough as it is, I don't think it needs to be added to.

-Nam
I'm on the road less traveled...

Pasta Chick

I'm all for doing away with gendered bathrooms entirely.

Davin

I'm also fine for getting rid of gendered bathrooms. The social protocol would be about the same.
Always question all authorities because the authority you don't question is the most dangerous... except me, never question me.

Crow

No I will keep the gender definition toilets. I don't like queuing. Women (and coke heads) take up cubicles which means there are less places to piss if the urinal is busy which slows down the flow and rather than having to wait a few seconds a line starts to form. The three non gender toilets I can think of all have horrible waiting problems due to this.
Retired member.

Nam

I found out while working at Walt Disney World off and on for 10 years: men use public restrooms more often than women do. However, when women do use public restrooms they are actually dirtier than men are.

Just something I thought about after reading comments on this topic.

-Nam
I'm on the road less traveled...

Pasta Chick

So women should have to wait in even longer lines so that men don't have to wait at all?
Nice.

Sandra Craft

Quote from: Nam on March 05, 2016, 12:58:51 AM
I found out while working at Walt Disney World off and on for 10 years: men use public restrooms more often than women do. However, when women do use public restrooms they are actually dirtier than men are.

Just something I thought about after reading comments on this topic.

-Nam

My experience was somewhat different.  At my work, before I retired, a men's single user rest room was nearer the office than the women's restroom, so I often used the men's.  The cleanliness levels were the same, but the men's smelled a good deal worse.   Better magazines, tho.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Biggus Dickus

Quote from: Pasta Chick on March 05, 2016, 01:39:16 AM
So women should have to wait in even longer lines so that men don't have to wait at all?
Nice.

Yes, plus we can't have you filthy women/crack head types dirtying up the restrooms, sheesh!

"Some people just need a high-five. In the face. With a chair."

Crow

Quote from: Pasta Chick on March 05, 2016, 01:39:16 AM
So women should have to wait in even longer lines so that men don't have to wait at all?
Nice.

Yup.

Plus the actual architectural problem of forcing non-binary toilets everywhere would be a pain in the ass for everyone that has to work on one where there are already many silly laws. 99% of the time the places that have unisex toilets have them because it is easier and cheaper to just make one big toilet unit. Mens toilets you can often just slap in a small space, place a single cubicle and a few urinal bowls or trough and its done. For the same amount of space you could fit two cubical, very few business units have enough space to provide one large area, thus why you often find the mens and the womens toilets not just separated but in totally different areas. Just isn't practical.
Retired member.

Ecurb Noselrub

Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on March 05, 2016, 03:14:08 AM
a men's single user rest room was nearer the office than the women's restroom, so I often used the men's.  The cleanliness levels were the same, but the men's smelled a good deal worse.   

That by itself should be enough to make you want to keep separate facilities.  I think men are more likely to engage in the "office dump", so you are better off keeping dudes to themselves. I would assume that a transgender dump is just as stinky as the regular kind.

Bad Penny

I believe in equal preferred squared measurement for each genders restrooms.
You don't want to make men wait anyway, they'll do it in the sink, or anywhere.
Why aren't more woman making use of these things anyway?


Nam

Quote from: Bad Penny on March 05, 2016, 01:25:17 PM
I believe in equal preferred squared measurement for each genders restrooms.
You don't want to make men wait anyway, they'll do it in the sink, or anywhere.
Why aren't more woman making use of these things anyway?



True. I'm a smoker. Live in the middle of nowhere, and I smoke outside. But I'm not going to stop smoking just to use the bathroom inside. That's what trees are for. To piss on.

-Nam
I'm on the road less traveled...

xSilverPhinx

Quote from: Bad Penny on March 05, 2016, 01:25:17 PM
I believe in equal preferred squared measurement for each genders restrooms.
You don't want to make men wait anyway, they'll do it in the sink, or anywhere.
Why aren't more woman making use of these things anyway?



:query:  I think I've figured out what that is used for. I think it's a great idea to get one of those if you're out in the woods, you desperately need to go and you have a disposible bottle to spare. If you have access to regular bathroom however then why use it?

I think it was Freud who spoke of women having penis envy. I don't think he really knew what he was talking about.
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


Harmonie

Quote from: Bad Penny on March 05, 2016, 01:25:17 PM
I believe in equal preferred squared measurement for each genders restrooms.
You don't want to make men wait anyway, they'll do it in the sink, or anywhere.
Why aren't more woman making use of these things anyway?



TBH, I don't even want to stand up to go. Why would I want to give up privacy and checking my phone? (Yes, I get on my phone, while peeing. LOL. My attention span is that small... No... Really, it came about from being the best opportunity to check my phone at work, and it has become a habit for me no matter when or where I'm going >.<)

Icon Image by Cherubunny on Tumblr
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony