I Feel Safer When Women Use Women’s Public Restrooms — don’t my feelings count, too?

Transgendered people have stated they feel safe and more comfortable using the bathroom of the gender with which they identify. However, to demand to use public restrooms or other facilities of the opposite sex can potentially hurt others. This is where we should draw the line. If the transgendered community wants to dress differently that choice doesn’t directly affect most people. But when you open up public restrooms, locker rooms (or similar areas) to the opposite sex, there is a potential for harm.

Knowing the human race, there is someone bound to take advantage of using the women’s bathroom who is not transgendered. This person could be a pervert. Yes, I have heard the arguments that predators don’t typically assault people in restrooms, but it is possible. In addition to the physical threat, there are also emotional issues that could arise. What about mental anguish caused by this type of arrangement? What if a woman was sexually assaulted in the past, and the thought of sharing a restroom (or locker room) with a man causes so much stress she simply cannot use a public facility because of her anxiety?

My daughter is now an adult, so any fears of her seeing the male genitalia in a public restroom, although still not preferred, are less since she could process that experience in an adult manner—but what about a little girl? Why should she be subject to potentially seeing something she shouldn’t yet understand? (Trust me, kids sometimes look under stall doors.) Is the innocence of children simply not valued any longer?

I am truly sorry for the suffering the transgendered have endured. I am wondering, however, what kind of suffering they’re asking the rest of us to endure who simply don’t feel safe sharing public facilities with the opposite sex? Most of us are comfortable with some bathrooms being labeled unisex, but can’t we keep other public facilities clearly designated for men or women only to provide a choice? Can the transgendered community try to understand how unsafe they could make some feel by demanding their “right” to open up these very personal and private areas of public use to the opposite sex? We’re being told to “get over it,” but isn’t that exactly what transgendered people have been told—to “get over it” and accept their birth sex? In addition, how can society ensure safety if such demands are enacted? It can’t. Yes, I realize that public bathrooms facilities are sometimes unsafe anyway, but does this mean it’s okay to open it up to further possible harm?

All people should be treated with dignity and respect. Doesn’t this include those people who don’t want to share the bathroom with the opposite sex, or the woman who wants to undress at a locker room without men in the same space? Don’t we have the right to feel safe, too? Unisex bathrooms would be a good compromise, where there is only one stall, and a locked door for use of one person at a time. The other bathrooms, where there are multiple stalls, should remain clearly designated for men or women only. There needs to be choices for all.