Bathrooms...

We all know that for us trans-people this is one of, if not the most controversial issues that face us today. We see the conservatives constantly using it against us, which results in trans-people fearing to use the bathroom of our gender identity for fear of violence against us. In Slate magazine there is an article about our fears,

Fear and Loathing in Public Bathrooms, or How I Learned to Hold My Pee
By Ivan E. Coyote
April 11, 2014

I can hold my pee for hours. Nearly all day. It’s a skill I developed out of necessity, after years of navigating public washrooms. I hold it for as long as I can, until I can get myself to the theatre or the green room or my hotel room, or home. Using a public washroom is a very last resort for me…
[…]
Every time I bring up or write about the hassles trans and genderqueer people receive in public washrooms or change rooms, the first thing out of many women’s mouths is that they have a right to feel safe in a public washroom, and that, no offense, but if they saw someone who “looks like me” in there, well, they would feel afraid, too. I hear this from other queer women. Other feminists. This should sting less than it does, but I can’t help it. What is always implied here is that I am other, somehow, that I don’t also need to feel safe. That somehow their safety trumps mine.

That is the reality; women shouldn’t have to fear us because we are the ones that statistics show are the most endangered. As far as I know there has never been a case where a trans-woman raped anyone in a bathroom. Do you remember in 2011 a Baltimore a trans-woman was beating at a McDonald’s as she left the bathroom; that is reality.

I am always a little nervous when I use the public restroom because I never really know if someone will raise a stink. One time I was traveling to North Carolina with my cousin and her family and we stopped a rest area in Virginia and I can tell you I was nervous; I was looking for the gender police.

I will say this; whichever bathroom you use, respect the space. I was at a genderqueer conference last weekend, even though they had signs up on the bathrooms saying “gender neutral” don’t leave the seat up!