Gender neutral in Jessica and Me

I haven’t written about this until now, but I made a commitment back in January to only use gender-neutral or unisex restrooms when I am out in public. It’s a decision I made in solidarity with the trans community. I am not trans myself, but one of my closest friends was born female but now identifies as genderqueer.

This commitment has been more of a challenge than I thought it would be. But in some ways I see that as a good thing because it has allowed me to appreciate the struggle that trans people have just to find a safe place to pee…something the rest of us really take for granted.

I was at a coffee shop yesterday that didn’t have a gender-neutral restroom, so I didn’t go even though I needed to. Next door was a Subway. I know that many of them do have gender-neutral restrooms, so I went in there, but this particular location did not.

My need to pee was getting more urgent, so I ended up driving several miles out of my way to be able to stop at a small shopping center that I knew had a restroom for me.

I’m fortunate that my office has unisex restrooms because otherwise I don’t know what I’d do during my work day.

I don’t expect too many people to do the same thing I’m doing, but it would be a nice experiment for most people to at least notice how often they do or do not see a gender neutral restroom in public places.