The state of North Carolina is in the middle of a controversy regarding who can use gender specific public bathrooms. The governor signed a bill into law which affects opening up rest facilities to persons who identify as a gender other than the one into which they were born. Being human (or being a human being) is becoming more complex by the minute.
I think this means it is time to change our bathrooms, not the people using them.
Let’s look at what we’re dealing with. For all of us every day, using a bathroom is a biological necessity and a bane. Millions of us handle our bodily functions with decorum, but others, without going into gross detail, do not. In addition to the hygienic issue of the public use toilets, there never seems to be enough of them. The lines for women’s facilities are twice as long as men’s, and let’s face it: nobody likes to stand in a line that long, knowing what we’re planning to do once we get there anyway.
So the “modern” restrooms have walls, a flimsy door and plenty of ventilation. Often there are gaps everywhere, which can also be abused by voyeurs, and the only thing distinguishing them, other than signs with stick figures of humans–one of whom has a skirt–on the doors are the addition of urinals for the men. Aren’t they a bit of an accessory anyway? Men can urinate in a toilet, but I guess it would put those scented cake manufacturers out of business if we do away with the porcelain penis-height peeing points.
A person who may resemble a man but is actually a woman (or vice versa) normally should not have an issue with entering a restroom, except that men might expect users who can pee by unzipping their flies at the urinals. Does anybody really care if a woman who identifies as male enters a stall and sits to pee? If they wash their hands, who cares if they have one body part over another?
Maybe what we need are all access bathrooms which are safe, non-gender specific, with ecology minded low flush toilets and a place to put one’s carried accessories (purses or coat) or a child (like on a changing table) without worrying. We don’t need to worry about showing our birth certificates to prove what gender we are when we have to go.
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