Why Separate Restrooms?
We already know why? Basically to give girls privacy during their most vulnerable moments! Basically to protect girls from silly perverted boys!
I mean if a girl go into a boy's bathroom, there isn't the level of freakout if a boy go into the girl's bathroom.
(by the way, in high school, I actually saw a girl smoking in the boy's bathroom. I actually knew that girl from the elementary school, and I was giggling while saying "harassment!". She actually begged for me not to tell the teachers. Later, I told my friend about the incident, and he said that wasn't the 1st time that same girl smoked in the boy's bathroom! Years later, I contacted that same girl on myspace, and asked her straight up "why were you smoking in the boy's bathroom?" She responded with "Whaaaat? I dont' remember that. Probably because I was young and young people do stupid things")
If any boy tried THAT, he most likely would've been beaten up, snitched on and expelled!
What about gender non-conformists?
This is where things get tricky!
Especially for ultra-feminine males who dress totally like women!
In the men's restrooms, they risk being attacked by homophobic men!
In the women's restrooms, they risk being yelled at (and slapped) by angry women who feel that their private space is being intruded by a man!
So where do the transgender go to restroom?
Or what about those born with both male & female sex organs.
From Salon's interview with Dr. Gerald N. Callahan
http://www.salon.com/2009/07/07/xx_xy/
Given that you work in the field of pathology, intersexuality isn’t exactly your immediate area of expertise. How did you end up writing this book?
The area I’m most involved with within pathology is immunology, which on one level is the study of how we manage to distinguish ourselves from the rest of the universe. I was preparing for a course when I came across an article that mentioned that 65,000 children are born of indeterminate sex each year. I thought that was amazing — because that was a much higher number of individuals than those afflicted by many diseases I was very aware of — and I began to wonder why I hadn’t heard about them.
You can learn more by reading http://www.salon.com/2009/07/07/xx_xy/
It's not only about the transgendered and intersex!
What would parents do if they alone take their kids of the opposite gender out in public?
Lots of akwardness when you see a father taking his daughter to the men's restroom, and same when you see a mother take her son to the women's restroom!
But most people are understanding if that child is about preschool aged!
But older than that, not so much! Even though some mothers are nervous about even a 11-year old use the men's restroom alone due to fear of sexual predators!
But it's not just parents with young children!
It's also adults taking their elderly parents out in public!
Imagine being a man with a mother who is now stuck in a wheelchair and not able to take care of bodily functions alone!
Imagine being a woman with a father in the same condition!
Lots of akwardness in public restrooms in such situations.
It is all those situations why I think all buildings should have at least one single-stall restroom be gender-neutral restrooms! On every floor!
Yes, we can lock those restrooms from the inside for privacy so that
- transgendered or intersex person can use the restroom in peace
- parents can help their under-aged or disabled children use the restroom
- adult caregivers can help their disabled parents/grandparents/aunties/uncles, etc use the restroom
Yes, we can still have boys-only and girls-only restrooms!
But let's also add gender-neutral single-stall restrooms in every building!
=============
PS: During my time as a graduate student at UH-Manoa, I was in the Graduate Student Organization (GSO) and we voted in a resolution to turn all single-stall restrooms on campus into gender-neutral restrooms. That was in September 2015!
Here's the GSO resolution on gender-neutral restrooms
