Political Memes

And there were plenty of "colored only" water fountains.

The truth is that, here in the real world, gender-neutral bathrooms are always few and far between. And even when they can be found, they're usually single stall. And people use them for all sorts of purposes. Sometimes they're used as lactation rooms when proper facilities aren't available. Sometimes they're randomly locked. Or you might just get caught behind some asshole who decides to play on the phone for an hour. In a normal restroom, one person hogging the pot doesn't interrupt things. If there's only one stall, it does.

Separate but equal is never equal. It is never equal, because the majority never bothers to make the alternative ghetto they reserved for the minority truly equal in kind, quality, and character to that which the majority uses.

There is, however, a simple solution. Trans people can simply use the restroom that they feel the most comfortable in. If someone simply doesn't feel safe with the possibility of sharing a bathroom with a trans person, we have an option for them. They can use the single stall restrooms we've positioned throughout the building.

And really, this approach just makes more sense. The people who don't want to share bathrooms tend to tilt older and with more wealth and influence behind them. Thus, the bigots have a lot more political capital than trans people do. As such, if we require bigots to use the separate but equal restroom, the bigots actually have the better shot of insuring the restroom that corresponds to their needs is properly funded.

And finally, is this not the approach with anyone who has bigotries around bathrooms? There are still some racists out there who don't like sharing restrooms with people of color. And they cite the exact same vague irrational safety fears as bigots do. And we should tell both of them that if you have a problem using the common shared space, that you can go ahead and use the single-user restroom.