Bathrooms

The Bathroom Debate is not really pertinent to the goals of THIS site. But just like I think the trans community is making a mistake to make RESPECT MY PREFERRED PRONOUNS a hill to die on, I think someone should just quietly advocate for individual (ungendered) bathrooms as the universal standard. 

I was RECENTLY in an establishment with his and hers individual bathrooms and after the guy left and I entered the lady's room, a woman and two girls stood outside waiting for me to finish rather than just entering the bathroom next to mine solely because there's little signs on the doors segregating them by gender for no meaningful reason.

For large establishments like Walmart that typically have Men, Women and one individual Family bathroom, my only complaint is sometimes the family bathroom is locked and I feel they police it a little too much. Otherwise, they HAVE an individual bathroom they could just LET people use without hassling them about why ONE person wants to go in there alone.

I sometimes want to use it to tend privately to my MEDICAL situation -- like changing my clothes and cleaning up privately because I messed my pants and it's a CRISIS because germ control is my life -- and I don't REALLY want to discuss that with ANYONE. 

I don't LOOK obviously handicapped. I've spent time homeless and been ASKED if I had a doctor's note proving I REALLY need to wash my hands even if I don't use their toilet. I worked in insurance and I have a RIGHT to medical privacy and really shouldn't NEED to try to convince a cashier that I have a life threatening medical condition, honest and for true, please quit being a classist jackass who thinks I'm CONNING you because I'm poor and thus NEED to prove medical need to WASH my HANDS, you douchebag.

Which is to say that although I'm not trans, I have plenty of firsthand experience with bathroom access being stupid levels of drama for ridiculous reasons for some people. So I'm aware that currently the Walmart Family bathroom is a less than ideal solution, but it could be made to work just fine with a tweak in policies and practices.

So please don't TELL me "It CAN'T be done. There's a substantial corporate dollar value represented by existing nationwide bathroom infrastructure."

I'm not going to say "They can bill me." But that polite fuck off captures my general attitude.