Dear Badger,

Last night, on the eve of International Women’s Day, I got chucked from the male bathroom in Green Door Store while the female bathroom had an approximately, 45-minute wait. About twenty girls were waiting to relieve themselves, while the men went in and out, bought themselves a drink, chatted up someone at the bar and returned home, all in half the time span I was waiting in the bathroom queue.

Usually I laugh these situations off but last night really bothered me. Either that venue gets more toilets or, even better, they gender neutralize them once and for all. Why do I have to enjoy myself less whilst paying the same amount of money on drinks and entrance than men do, simply because their peeing methods are faster?

When I walked into that bathroom, where I had never been into (with urinals on the wall, how strange!), I told myself that in Brighton no one would ask me to leave, yet my gender clearly made the guy in the stall uncomfortable; to the point in which some guy in a man-bun and clip-board came in and said “you have to get out of here!” To which I responded, “But I need to pee!” Needless to say, it didn’t matter. The girls bathroom’s queue in the meantime kept growing, as guys continued to walk in and out, easy breezy.

Yes, the clipboard hipster was “just doing his job” and the bathrooms are not in fact gender neutral, but I wonder in this situation how trans people, or non-binary people or anyone in between may feel. Where do I pee and how can I minimize getting into embarrassing situations such as being thrown out?

Relieving one’s self in the most efficient way isn’t a privilege, it’s a human right. So enough with these gendered toilets and menninists with clipboards — because I really need to pee!

Categories: News

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Relieving one’s self is a human right!

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