99% Invisible
For this assignment, I decided to listen to the Where Do We Go From Here episode. I’m glad that this episode was suggested for us, because I found it to be really interesting and enlightening. This episode touched on a topic that though I’ve heard of, has never affected me, so I hadn’t given it much thought. How lucky am I, and many others, to never have encountered this issue in our lives before. Along with having several realizations about the unfairness in society, I also learned about the history behind how and why public bathrooms are the way that they are. Many bathrooms stem back to segregation based on race, sexual preferences and fear of contracting AIDS.
It was pretty shocking to hear all of the hoops they had to jump through, laws they had to address and steps they needed to take in order to solve their problem. As they began problem solving, the problem stemmed to be larger than the trans community. Public bathrooms in general are not accommodating to any population of people with disabilities. We heard one horrifying story of a man who had to use a bathroom with the stall door open because he couldn’t find a stall large enough for himself and his wheelchair. From these experiences, Joel Sanders created an initiative called Stalled! It was surprising to learn that due to code enforcements, it was mandated that you must have separate bathrooms. The Stalled! Team reimagined bathrooms to be more lounge-like with areas for grooming, going to the bathroom and hand-washing. To be more inclusive for all people, they envisioned feet washing stations for those with religious beliefs and things to make bathrooms easier for people with vision impairment to navigate. The Stalled! Team was able to get the codes changed, however it will take time for it to be accepted into local governments, so there may be a large span of time before we see these changes they worked so hard for.
It’s saddening to know that something as simple as using the bathroom can be a situation of stress for so many people. The steps that need to be taken to correct these problems are strenuous and time consuming. Even in this case, where they were successful in changing codes, it takes such a long time for these changes to be actually seen.
I will never forget the comments a member of the RSU 9 school board made during a discussion about designating some of the bathrooms as gender neutral.
ReplyDelete"How do we know our young people will be safe? And where are all these supposed people who need these gender-neutral bathrooms? If they need us to spend this money so badly [for a sign] then we should know EXACTLY how many people we are talking about. They should come forward. How do we know they won't change their mind and then want to go back to being whatever? Are we really going to change this for maybe five people when everyone has to share the costs?"
There was so much to unpack in that single comment that evening I merely said to that member as we were leaving, "for a man of tremendous knowledge and skill, you really don't understand much about what it means to be anyone other than you." It didn't change his mind but I was glad I at least said.