Gendered Bathrooms

I wondered how long it would take me to finally write a post on gendered bathrooms, seeing as it's probably the most obvious example of gendered space that anyone can think of! But I was waiting for the right time and the right inspiration to come along - which it did on friday. My professor (Kate Bride) gave me a letter written by Dean Spade to his coworkers about de-gendering bathrooms, and I thought that he had some really excellent things to say. So rather than summarizing his points, I figured I'd give you an exerpt of his letter (because sometimes good things are better left to speak for themselves!). Here's what Dean Spade has to say about gendered bathrooms:

"As you may know, bathrooms are a very serious issue for transgender, transsexual, and gender variant people. Most bathrooms are “gendered,” meaning that they are marked with signs designating a room for “men” and a room for “women.” For many reasons, this creates serious obstacles to using these facilities for trans and gender variant people. For one, many trans and gender variant people have appearances that are not consistently read as “male” or “female.” This means that every time we need to use a bathroom, we face a decision about which bathroom will be safer, never knowing whether we will encounter harassment, embarrassing stares, or even violence or arrest. I, myself, have been kicked out of both “women's” and “men's” bathrooms numerous times, and unlawfully arrested and held overnight for using the “men's” bathroom. Most trans and gender variant people have experienced severe harassment and/or violence because of being understood to be in the “wrong” bathroom. Additionally, many of us have a strong gender identity that does not conform to what some people expect when they look at us, so when we go into the bathroom with the sign that makes the most sense for our internal gender identity, we again frequently encounter a number of uncomfortable and/or unsafe experiences. Finally, many trans and gender variant people do not feel that they fit neatly into the either of two binary gender categories (“male” and “female”) and having to constantly be faced with a difficult decision on how to stay safe and retain dignity while trying to use facilities that are labeled in this way is a serious burden. The culmination of these experiences of humiliation, harassment, and violence day in and day out over the years produces in many trans and gender variant people severe and persistent anxiety about using public bathrooms. Medical professionals report that a disproportionate number of trans and gender variant people experience health problems stemming from the lack of access to safe bathrooms, and having to wait long periods to use a bathroom." - Dean Spade

To read more, visit http://makezine.enoughenough.org/ujcbathrooms.html