I consider myself educated and in the know about things going on in the political, economic and social worlds. So, when I heard about the movement from the transgender community to make bathrooms gender neutral, I followed it loosely, so that I could be at least be somewhat informed about what was happening.
Though I tried my best, I must have failed to keep up with it as much as I should have, because I thought that the movement was gaining ground mostly in bigger cities like L.A. and New York. So, when I walked into a pretty popular establishment near my college campus, that had just recently been renovated, just to use the bathroom before I ran some errands, I was a little taken aback when I noticed that the bathrooms are now gender neutral.
That's not taken aback in a bad way, but in a good way. I'm happy that somewhere so close to me made these changes. But when I opened the bathroom door and saw that the bathrooms now had multiple stalls (they were single-occupancy before the renovation) I thought that I might have read the sign wrong. So, I walked back out the door and checked the sign on the bathroom I had walked in, as well as the one right next to it. This time I knew that I wasn’t wrong. Both bathrooms were definitely gender-neutral. I walked over to the other bathroom, opened the door, and discovered that it was multi-stalled as well.
I immediately felt a small amount of discomfort knowing that while I was using the bathroom, a guy could be occupying the stall right next to me. I pushed the thought away as I walked in the bathroom, figuring since the bathrooms were both empty, I didn’t really have to worry about it.
I was wrong.
In the 30 seconds that I was in the bathroom, a guy walked into the bathroom and into the stall (the second out of the two stalls) next to me. I immediately felt myself tense up. I hurried up and exited the bathroom as quickly as I could, in order to escape the uncomfortable situation that I didn’t really have much control over.
As I was walking to my car afterward, I was reflecting on why exactly a man being in the same restroom as me made me so uncomfortable. Then I realized… It was because I know that public restrooms are a common place for rape to happen. Of course, I didn’t feel as though I was in any sort of immediate danger at the time, but knowing that I could’ve been was enough to give me an uneasy feeling at the time.
Wondering how gender-neutral restroom situations have been playing out in places where they’ve been carried out for some time now, I decided to do some research. In the middle of my research, I found this article. Based on the title I hoped it would alleviate some of my worries. But in reality, some of the quotes from these “experts” just raised some new questions.
Take Connecticut, for example.
Because, if you aren’t aware of it, it probably didn’t happen, right? And, most of the women would suddenly decide to let you know, considering 68 percent of rape goes undocumented and all.
Iowa? Any better? Nope.
You’re right. Because you’re an expert. If you “doubt” it’s going to happen, it probably won’t.
Maine, you disappoint me as well.
Minnesota, you might be the worst.
"Not even remotely." Classic.
Do I think that gender-neutral bathrooms are the source of evil here? Absolutely not. I think the way some places choose to implement the bathrooms and the people that believe rape isn’t happening are the real problems here. Considering that public restrooms are the third-most-common place for attacks and rape to happen, it should at least be a concern in the eyes of places choosing to implement gender-neutral bathrooms (I’m looking at you, Minnesota).
Whether the solution is making these bathrooms single-occupancy, making stalls that aren’t easy to look into, or not including locks on the inside of the door of the bathroom itself, something needs to be done to help protect any potential victim of rape, man or woman.
