History of Bathroom Gender Segregation

Footnotes of Rachel Lucas' Ted Talk 'Why You can Pee Next to Me'

The first segregated bathroom was in Paris, in 1739, at a ball held in a restaurant. The addition of toilets for ladies was notable because, prior to this, public restrooms were either unmarked or for men only. It was assumed ladies would not need to be outside of their homes long enough to use the restroom.

In 1887, Massachusetts became the first state to require that employers provide separate toilets for women. Women were entering the workplace for the first time. Segregated bathrooms were a response to a rapidly changing reality in America where women worked outside the home and had more independence. Separate restrooms were also an attempt to protect women's genteel sensibilities.

Decades later, public restrooms became a controversy when white segregationists in the South were attempting to mandate, or integrate public spaces for blacks and whites. Segregationists spread fear throughout an already tense white population that if Blacks were allowed to use public restrooms, it would lead directly to Black men having sexual access to white women.

White women joined the conversation by protesting they couldn't use public restrooms used by black women because they would 'catch their venereal diseases.' Whites defended their restrooms with protests and violence.

Sammy Younge Jr. A civil rights activist, was shot in the back of the head and killed by a white service station attendant when attempting to use the white restroom. The service station attendant was later found not guilty by an all-white jury.

By the 1970s the controversy was about women and the feminist movement. Anti-Equal Rights Amendment activists spread fear by suggesting equal rights would lead directly to the sex integration of public toilets, and drew on racism by suggesting it would lead to predatory black sexual violence against women and children. This fearmongering was successful and the Equal Rights Amendment was never passed.

There is a new target now. After the Supreme Court ruling in 2015 legalizing gay marriage, a group of pastors gathered signatures and initiated court cases to repeal this decision. Those wanting repeal used television commercials and newspaper articles, to show that allowing transgender women access to women’s restrooms would leave cisgender women and girls vulnerable to attack by men."

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmZpFy1QUww[/embed]

New Paradigm! Break the Bathroom Binary!

Facts:

• Most people develop into the gender they were assigned at birth. There are minorities of people that do not fit in these easy boxes. Biology loves variation. Society does not.
• Transgender people have existed throughout human history. This may include female-to male, male-to-female, two-spirit, genderqueer, and many other categories. This makes up on the census .6% of the US population, or 1.4 million people, however these are people who are out of the closet.
• The prevalence of male-to-female harassment/sexual violence in bathrooms is akin to marijuana overdoses. There has never been a documented case of it.
• Violence against gender non-conforming people is a thing and people who do not fit in an easy box have to navigate this danger everytime they wish to use the restroom in public. Anyone who looks different enough to frighten someone
• It is already illegal in every state, to peep, sexually assault, or murder someone. These already apply to public bathrooms.
• Public Restrooms are dangerous for non-binary gendered people. Everytime that person must effectively self-segregate and decide which restroom will be safest for that person that day.
• The 2015 US Transgender Survey Report showed 12% of trans people report harassment, assault, and/or attack in bathrooms. 60% have avoided public bathrooms in the past year. This led to higher rates of kidney-related medical diseases in the past year among trans folk from avoiding restrooms.