Both people were in an awkward confrontation, right, but only one of them chose to be in that confrontation. There’s an easier way to solve this problem.
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This needs to be the answer every single time. You think I’m in the wrong bathroom? How would you know?
I interact with the public a lot, and every now and then I meet somebody who makes me unsure what pronoun to use. If it’s a little awkward for me, let’s make it ten times as awkward for the Potty Police.
EDIT: What an unusual accent. You think the gentleman is Carribean or maybe African?
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It starts with everyone knowing too much about each other’s bowel movements.
It ends in a world without pants.
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I’ve often thought one of these old-style troughs (new) would make. a great aquarium although I know a lot of damn fools would be tempted to use it anyway. Maybe a good thing to stock with piranhas
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or Candiru?
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The Romans had it figured out. This was the standard arrangement - all genders, all ages.
I admit I would be a little uncomfortable if someone chose the adjacent corner seat when there were lots of other vacant holes.
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I have heard that - not seen it, fortunately, but heard it. More common, though, is the propensity of some women to, er, decorate the walls, mirrors and ceilings with used feminine hygiene products.
The Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo has a famous “waterfall urinal” . Any man using it is very likely to be walked in on by camera-wielding tourists.
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No, not really.
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My friend posted this on Facebook today. Prescient.
Mark my words: Someone is going to die before this gets sorted.
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Some have dividers. Most of the time I use a stall because I just never trust a fart any more.
At any rate, despite trying to empathize with people who had genuine concerns about predators, as this new hot issue has played out, I have more or less given up on that line of thinking. Despite playing devils advocate some the last time we visited this bathroom crisis, I’ve decided that sexual predators aren’t something you can preemptively stop with laws, you can only deal with them when they make themselves known. So restricting people’s liberty because someone might be a predator is just as irrational as some of the arguments I counter on gun debates.
Second, I heard some people like on face book worried about seeing a penis in the women’s room, or more specifically their kid seeing one. It was then I realized:
I have been using public restrooms for over 20 years as an adult. I can’t recall ever seeing a strangers penis. If I can go through life using the men’s room and never see another guys dick, then you certainly will have no problem with a transgendered person who still has male equipment.
In general, unless you are talking kids or people who are mentally disabled, if you see a wang, you were either looking for it, or they wanted to show you (which is illegal, no matter what bathroom laws are in place.)
And finally, it isn’t like transgendered is a NEW thing. These people have been using the bathroom for years. It really hasn’t been an issue. And no one seems to be in a panic that there are male predators who may be in men’s room preying on boys. Not one word about that.
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Maybe I’m scarred by junior high school, where the stalls in the “boy’s room” had NO doors because reasons, but what I want are separate little closed rooms with toilet and sink. Like they have in Europe. Real walls, real, inside-of-house-like door. Real privacy, not this fake cubicle style “privacy” we have in the US. Then you can have ONE large restroom with a bunch of stalls, where anyone can go in, and choose an unoccupied stall, and use it. WE DO THAT ON AIRPLANES, for fuck’s sake, and nobody minds.
Oh well, rant over. (grumble grumble)
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Also the little channel by where the toes would go would have water running through it, and suspended within would be sponges each on their own stick for obvious purposes.
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Of course someone will.
There always has to be a senseless, completely preventable death followed by an expensive lawsuit before any kind of real change happens…
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You’ll have to talk to the architectural/ engineering firms. Anything out of the ordinary may cost money.
Or the Pope. But really, they get set up, you take them down.
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I also want white noise generators. Not for me, but for everyone else.
This all seems like a 2016 version of stranger danger.
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Don’t sit next to me, don’t make eye contact, and we good 
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I recall using a 2-holer outhouse at my friend’s uncle’s place… At least they were side by side with a respectable amount of space between them – one didn’t have to worry about eye contact unless you both were reaching to tear some pages out of the Sears catalog at the same time…
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Huh. I guess you’ve never seen or taken a bus where the bus driver also checked tickets, passes or IDs!?
Over in the country in question, it’s also a common part of a drivers duties to check that the right person with the right ticket is getting on the right bus to go to and get off at the right place. For everybody’s sake. If they don’t make an attempt at that, they can get into trouble.
While the Pacific Forum gaffe was embarrassing, that guy (unlike the peepee policeman in the story here) was trying to do his job. Inadvertently kidnapping a politicians wife and taking her to the wrong venue could have sparked a much bigger security panic!
At a political event like this, checking identities of folk passing in and out of secured areas (eg, in a bus) can be a pretty big deal. The driver did a crappy job of it, but checking he’s got the right folk on board is certainly part of his job.
