Are These Trans + Gay-Only Bathrooms Good For Safety? Or Just Separate But Equal

[Shana A]

Are These Trans + Gay-Only Bathrooms Good For Safety? Or Just Separate But Equal?

http://www.queerty.com/are-these-trans-gay-only-bathrooms-good-for-safety-or-just-separate-but-equal-20110110/

Students at one of the top samba schools in Rio de Janeiro were either dismayed or elated to find bathrooms set aside specifically for gay and transgender dancers. At Unidos de Tujuca, which will send participants to the annual carnival celebrations in March (NB: That's the news peg), the separate but equal facilities are being called "carnival apartheid" by one anti-homophobia proponent. Either that, or they're providing a safe place to pee. There is one possible solution: make bathrooms (sexuality and) gender-neutral, a la Starbucks, although that would likely require the implementation of single-person facilities throughout.

[regan]

Its absolutely seperate but equal.  You don't need to read the article to know it just reinforces the stereotype that we're all a bunch of sex pervs and we're just looking to get freaky in the bathrooms.  I'm pretty bathroom (public) phobic as it is, as much as I don't want to go in one, I just want to get in there, do what I need to do and get out again.

[VanOcc]

I agree. I think the best solution to this is have several gender and sexuality neutral bathrooms. If I need to use a bathroom in public in the UK, I use a radar key and the disabled toilet.

[Nemo]

Apart from the fact that it means anyone in the closet is screwed, and not in a good way I can just imagine the wise-guys watching the people going in there just to see if they're trans/gay or not. The worst of them will probably be taking notes so they know who to lay into later on. Yeah, real safety concerns they have there

I'm pretty bathroom (public) phobic as it is, as much as I don't want to go in one, I just want to get in there, do what I need to do and get out again.

And this is just the kind of problem this causes. I'm the same; until I get a decent STP in place I get paranoid in the gents. We have gender-neutral bathrooms at work with zero problems - it's really not so hard to implement

[JosephKT]

I question why anyone thought that "gay only" bathrooms were ever necessary if not for the purposes of "protecting straight people," but I really like gender neutral bathrooms with multiple stalls myself.  The university I attended only had one gender neutral bathroom, that would usually be a 10 minute walk to get to from the building I worked in mostly so that sucked, but it had three stalls, and the doors unlike most bathrooms went from floor to ceiling, and didn't have that gap on the sides, so there couldn't be peeping.  It did make for some interesting, "oh hi Mr. Andrews, I never thought we'd be in the same bathroom together moments", but other than that there was really little awkwardness.  I have heard of other facilities where it seemed such bathrooms were installed just to appease people and very little money was spent making for practically ply-wood doors and messy facilities, and a couple trans folks have commented it just seems like a disaster area waiting to happen.

[Miniar]

It's just as equal as having "black" bathrooms.