All-Gender Bathrooms: Would You Be Comfortable Using One?

[Marcia]

I hate comments about "if I had a little daughter instead of two little boys. I would be scared for her safety."

I mean come on if you had a daughter that used that restroom then wouldn't you go in with her just like you do with your sons?

[Felix]

I have a little daughter and I at times have to either go into the girls room with her or take her into the boys room with me. There's no good answer for it and if anybody gives me trouble I just direct some full blast awkwardness in their direction and they usually back off.

[Huan Cao]

I would be completely comfortable with using an all-gender bathroom. It would show that I am very accepting of the LBGT type of people at a personal level.

[King Malachite]

Heck yeah I would be comfortable using one!  I've always wanted to use a bathroom with urinals around.

[Lesley_Roberta]

Weeeeeeeeell As I have mentioned about urinals....

And I have been a janitor, and ladies, you can be the consummate pigs, so no picking on the men in that respect.

But here is the big question, can you take a pee in front of someone, yes actually in front of another?

In the military, men tend to just pull it out and pee on the ground in full view of each other. But guys are like that.

I can't claim to have knowledge of whether a platoon of women in the military can all casually drop their pants and squat to pee in front of each other.

I have been in the military, and guys tend to not care about anything. Shower together, swim together nude. Can't claim again to know if their is a female equal here.

But I know this much. I have no sex hang ups. I could have sex with my wife openly on the beach and not care a single iota about it. So I think I can pee in front of you. Thus, in a stall next to you is really of no real challenge to me. Now or after SRS.

But until it gets to become law, that a toilet is a non gender location, I am not likely to push the matter even if you can't find me a law saying a person couldn't make an issue of me using a ladies room if I am properly dressed as one.

[GnomeKid]

Definitely! I've used ladies rooms...  I've used men's rooms... They're all bathrooms, and all the same things happen in them..

My only fear, really, is that the fact that we're now inviting both genders into the same rest room there will be the higher possibility of walking in on....... unsavory acts being committed. 

There may (if all rest rooms were converted to be this way) also be the stereotypical sex/girl-crazed adolescents who will linger in order to cause trouble spying on the women folk.  (and often probably inadvertently the men-folk)

[Steffo]

I would LOVE to use one. Don't have to worry about the ladies with the smug idea that I'm in "their bathroom", and I don't have to weird guys out. I will still weird them out, but do it justifiably now.

[aurora17]

A the beginning of my transition, a few years back, after being told not to use women's toilets by my (male) boss, I decided to go downstairs the building to the only one "wheelchair" toilet available. That one is a "gender neutral" one, and I was not offending anyone by using it.

Until my FFS by Dr Ousterhout, I used these public toilets, so that neither men nor women were offended by an ambiguous (therefore suspect) being using "their" toilet. I always made sure that no handicapped person in a wheelchair would have to wait while I was quickly doing my business inside. That was about that.

After my FFS, I could at last live full time, it was nearly three years ago, and nobody ever thought twice about me. I've been using the women's restroom ever since, without any issue whatsoever.

So, I guess the "gender neutral" toilets thing is probably for people still appearing ambiguous while transitioning. Anyway, it's not something new.

I do concur, though, that privacy is quite important, for everybody. I have witnessed first hand (I won't elaborate, but it is easy to guess) predatory behavior on behalf of both men and women. Rape, harassment, this class of behavior is not specific to a given gender.  But that's a different story altogether.

[MadelineB]

I used all-gender public bathrooms for two years when I was in Korea. Typical layout was 10 stalls down one wall, without doors, and 15 urinals down the other wall. No one looked at anyone (you tend to look down at the feet level to see if a stall or urinal is occupied) and once I got used to the idea that I wasn't in America where everyone stares and gets into other peoples' business, it was fine.

[SarahDoll1987]

Not sure if I'd feel comfortable with it... and also the pee all over the seats would drive me mad lol

[Amy The Bookworm]

Thought I should clarify that I know women wouldn't 'violate' me in the restroom. It's more the feeling of vulnerability I'm talking about.

I would feel this way as well only vis-versa.  I do currently, to be honest since I still present as a male.

[XchristineX]

I used to go to a nightclub in vancouver that had...The Odyssey

all gender bathroom... wasnt a big deal...
was actually MORE comfortable since really...
you have all genders watching.... was safe...

[StellaB]

It would only bother me if I was constipated, but otherwise no. Well, unless there were towels I could bite.

[lydia_s]

The person who runs the dormitory I live in changed the bathroom near me to gender neutral in response to my transition, among other things. I think it makes it less insisting that I'm a guy. One less reminder I guess. Interestingly both genders use it regularly and if anything it sparked progressive interest.

[Devlyn]

"I never understood the concept of it being a male's responsibility to ensure proper setup for the female."

I never got that, either.

[V M]

Back in the day when I would go to bars, clubs and so forth the "Men's room" would often become unisex by default (lengthy lines at the "Women's room") I would often be asked by gals to escort them to the restroom and stand guard

I couldn't care less who was going potty next door to me as long as they don't piss on my shoes or such, but I can see where it could turn into a problem if predatory types are hanging about

[Lesley_Roberta]

I find it odd, that people seem to think, a 'female' found in a men's room is asking to be assaulted.

I find it odd, a 'male' found in a woman's room is stalking a target.

I think the idea it is even possible sounds alarming. What the heck kind of region are we talking about here? Maybe I am just too darned small townish pershaps.

I wouldn't go in a rest room if it looked like it was even possible to engage in that sort of nonsense to begin with. Heck, if it is possible to rape a female in one, or have a man able to misbehave in one, then the washroom is in a place where I likely could be robbed or murdered too.

As a father, if I was with a daughter, yes I would walk her into the women's washroom, and if I was given a single glare, I'd counter the glare, and tell her to pull her head out of her ass and let me let my daughter use the toilet in peace. And I am surprised no one has mentioned, you can go anywhere if your mother is with you. So a woman taking her son into the woman's washroom, well I think I'd expect her to say about the same to any women bitching about a boy in there too.

Not that I think there is anything wrong with a woman taking a son into the men's room.

Frankly, every last bit of the whole 'you might see the other sex's privates' part of any of this problem, really stems from all the brain dead social baggage connected to those sex organs.

We would only need one type of washroom, if people had NO baggage connected to sex organs.

[Lesley_Roberta]

Society conditions us to think many things.

I think a father is just as likely to be in the right to go himself into a woman's washroom so that his daughter does not need to see old men peeing, as a mother is in the right having a boy with her in the ladies room because like I say, as long as you are with your mother, it's all good.

The thing is, most guys, well in my 51 years of experience at least, are not flinging their johnson around while standing at a urinal. Urinals don't tend to offer much option to view from not right beside the person.

I don't believe women are inclined to sit on the toilet with the stall door open so that a person can see between their legs.

I think society tends to massively inflate fantasy when it comes to washrooms.
I think children only earn something is a problem when we make it a problem by going out of our way to make it one.

I really wish sex education went something like.
This is a penis, it does this during sex (indicate becomes erection) so that it can do this, (indicate ejaculation) inside this (indicate vagina) after doing this (indicate in out action inside vagina), the reason being this (indicate sperm) from these (indicate testicles) is needed by this (indicate egg) which causes this (indicate baby) which grows here (indicate womb). This activity is normal and generally happens between too people that greatly love each other, and never should be done under any other situation, as the whole process (indicate pregnant woman) will happen regardless of reason if sperm and egg meet.

We seriously need to ditch all the dogma out of sex and explain it for what it really is, just human reproduction. As vital as breathing, eating and sleeping. And hey, I happen to really like breathing in great smells, and eating great food, and I like to have a good rest when I can, and I don't mind when I do any of those actions.

Why should we make it such a bother to enjoy sex just because we enjoy it?

[Lyric]

This is really a cultural thing that's more a big deal in the US than a lot of other places. I would be fine with it. In fact, I think it would be a good idea to have them in public schools so that kids adjust to it from an early age.

[ToriJo]

I'll add that I don't know of any attack against a trans person in a bathroom because of the viewing of genitals (of either the trans person or the non-trans person).  I would be interested in information if people have it.

I know of a lot of attacks against a trans person in a bathroom on the basis of them not-passing while fully clothed.

I'll also say that I would feel VERY uncomfortable if I was in the men's room and another guy started looking at my penis, *OR* if he started showing his penis to me.  He can have the same organ as me and identify the same way as me, but it would STILL be uncomfortable.  There's a myth that you have to be the opposite sex (but not gender, apparently) to harm someone.

I can't speak for women, but I suspect you all don't show each other your parts in the toilet either.  And it would probably be creepy if someone - even with the "right" parts - did so.

So it seems simple: we should be able to pee in privacy.  Period.  Not just privacy from people with different parts (or who pass otherwise as if they have different parts).