Xtra! (Canada's Gay and Lesbian News)
Ivan Coyote / Vancouver / Thursday, November 17, 2011
http://www.xtra.ca/public/Vancouver/Bathroom_bull->-bleeped-<-_redux-11107.aspxA couple of months ago I wrote a column here called "Dear Lady in the Women's Washroom" (Xtra #472, Sept 22). I wrote it shortly after returning from a visit to Granville Island with my sweetheart, where I had just endured yet another gender-panic-related "bathroom incident."
This particular time, a woman had screeched at the top of her lungs when I had entered the "ladies" washroom, glared at me as I bolted for a stall, and then spoke loudly and derisively about me to her friend while I was peeing. I came straight home and belted out a column.
That column got a lot of comments online, and a fair bit of private email as well. I was called entitled, insensitive, transsexual (and yes, I think they meant this as an insult, believe it or not) and basically told me that my right to pee unmolested was less important than other women's right to feel safe in a public washroom.
One person wrote to tell me, "Why not start a campaign or lobby or what have you — yes, you and all other trans men and trans women — get together and make it so that there is a washroom for those of you who have to 'think' harder than us straights as to what washroom to use. That way, you can pee or change your overloaded tampon in peace."
