Thank you for sharing this
and with humor, even better! : )

That would work well in a very small office but in a large office having 2 single stalls would create way too much of a hassle on pregnant people, people with disabilities, anyone having an emergency and overall productivity when there's a line to relieve yourself.

They should have restrooms like movie theatres, there isnt a door to the actual restroom but the individual stalls have locks. I feel safe in those restrooms and it wouldnt matter if a cisgendered hetero-man came in there because there is no door for him to hold anyone in there against their will.

I think when its all said and done we will simply have unisex restrooms.

In some cities (including D.C.), human rights law forbids discrimination against transgender men and women in public accommodations -- which means this sort of restroom segregation should be banned.

Really, how hard is it for businesses to just have two restrooms with functional locks, each labeled "restroom"?

This makes me think of the restrooms at our new office. There are two single restrooms, but one door labeled "women" is actually in the office area while the other which has no label has its door out in the warehouse area. Both restrooms are exactly the same, one toilet one sink. Yet they are labeled, or at least one is labeled. Which made me giggle when the guys who were fixing the ac or moving our stuff around would get to the restroom door, see the women's sign, and then kind look all confused. Even had a guy ask if it was okay if he used it. I was like "Dude, I'm the only one here. Both restrooms are the same. Unless it's going to destroy your manhood to use a restroom labeled "women" I don't care." My plan is to figure out how to take the "women" sign off but until then it's fun to watch the guys freak out over a simple sign. :P

This is really interesting with regards to how society understands the gender binary - is it about sex? Genitalia? Clothing? Of course, for so many people these things don't line up the way society says they should, and it's extremely reductive to assign people to one category or another based on these arbitrary markers.
I'd love to see restrooms moving towards having two restrooms with locks - but even those that do tend to label them male and female. I've seen people wait to use "their" restroom, even when the other one is obviously empty, as an example how firmly we police gender boundaries.

A while ago, when I was at the mall with my mom, I had a thought while I went to the bathroom (because I swear this creepy-looking man was going to follow me into the women's restroom):

Why are bathrooms gender-segregated, anyway? The only difference is that men use urinals.

Why can't there just be one big communal bathroom with stalls and urinals?

My mom was grossed out by my thought, but I still wonder why we don't. I think we should.

The most random place I've ever seen a gender neutral bathroom is in Somerville, MA in the Porter Square T (subway) station. It's a multi stall bathroom and there's just no gender sign.

It makes me really happy.

It never fails to amaze me that people stop to worry about who is using which bathroom. Even putting aside the fact that folks should be able to use the bathroom they identify with. Frankly, the last thing I'm thinking about when I need to go is what is or isn't between the legs of the person in the stall next door. Who hasn't used the "other" bathroom in an emergency? It isn't such a big deal, really.

If there is anything to fear in a public restroom, I'm pretty sure trans-people* don't even make the list.

There are some unisex bathrooms out there, even in more conservative areas: they call them "family bathrooms". Our local mall has one, along with a men's room, a women's room. I've seen them in other shopping centers, theaters, and sports arenas. The idea, of course, is to have a place where someone can take their kids of both sexes in. I just wish they would call it something else, though, because the word "family" is just so loaded these days. As if a family can only be Christian,heterosexual, cis-gendered, conservative-types.

*I'm sorry, I'm not sure which is correct regarding the hyphenating for trans-person. (Transperson? Trans person?) I did a Google search, and I'm seeing all three forms, so I wasn't sure which form to use. My only intent is to be respectful, so I hope I'm not offending.

most building codes in the US would essentially prevent the two-unisex-restrooms thing. based on the number of people in the building, there's a established number of toilets/urinals required. if each room had to have a sink of its own, that would end up requiring boatloads more space and fixtures and plumbing, which are not only expensive, but consume lots of resources. not to mention, each of those rooms would have to be ducted separately for HVAC. again, expensive and HUGELY unsustainable.

urinals are usually used because they use less water per flush than toilets, or they use waterless urinals lots of places now.

the other reason tends to be a more cultural thing; i.e. through socialization, it seems to be more OK with men to pee in front of other men, but many women would never do that, even in front of a relative or best friend. yes, this is completely the result of socialization, but i think if urinals were typically enclosed in stalls, there would be much less resistance to the everyone-uses-the-same-bathroom thing.

however, the environmental impact of the millions-of-separate-bathrooms thing is a dealbreaker for me.

I'm really in favor of a large communal restroom.

This summer I did a short study abroad in China and in a few places they had communal restrooms. It was a good setup. I wanted to take a picture but thought it would be inappropriate. :P
Anyway, there were about 20 or so stalls that mostly women were waiting in line for but a few men too. And there was a side room that was curtained off. While I didn't venture past the curtain, I'm fairly certain it contained urinals. Then there were another 10 or so sinks for communal use.
As a side note, the stall doors went all the way to the floor. Of course, the toilets were eastern style so it's required but I liked the added privacy.

How about words for male and female in different languages?

I appreciate the "creativity" of the restaurants, but it makes me second-guess which restroom I should go into!

I was working at a restaurant that had two single occupancy restrooms that were marked men and ladies. I had to go pretty bad at the end of a shift and used the men's room since the other was occupied. When I was leaving the restroom, a man was waiting to use it, and as I walked away he said," EXCUSE ME, this is the men's room."

I just turned and gave him a dirty look but didn't have a comeback because I was in "customer service mode."

But I really wanted to say something like, "How do you know I'm not a man?"

I think gendering restrooms is pretty dumb. I've also had male friends complain about how men's rooms don't have baby changing areas.

I'm commenting to say nothing except that I love the bathroom signs at Home Slice Pizza in Austin, TX.

I really don't get the third one. How you pee? huh?

Maybe I'm totally crazy, but on first glance, I saw the first one as pizzas. I figured the single slice for women (because you know how we care about our figures *eyeroll*) and the rest of the pizza for men.

Funny this article came up. Recently, my boyfriend and I were talking about how fun it would be to label bathroom doors with pictures instead -- one a monkey, and one a turtle, let's say.. and let people decide for themselves which they felt more associated with that day. Today, I feel like a turtle.
...and a monkey!