CREDIT: Twitter/@SarahWoodwriter.
We’ve already seen the one All Gender lav at the DNC, in the previous post. At that time, it was reported that the lav in question was full of different gendered people, with no problems at all. Now, it seems, conservatives have had time to pull themselves together and whine about it.
One of the bathrooms at the Democratic National Convention this week has been labeled an “all-gender restroom.” According to BuzzFeed, most people using the facility were unfazed by the experience, but a few members of the conservative press have been baffled about what they’re supposed to do.
Sarah Westwood of the Washington Examiner seemed to be unsure if she had a gender or not:
Unnecessarily confusing bathroom situation here #DemsInPhilly pic.twitter.com/C47bwE9ubf
— Sarah Westwood (@sarahcwestwood) July 25, 2016
How is that confusing at all, let alone unnecessarily so? Here’s some help, Ms. Westwood – look at the cute little picture.
Westwood told ThinkProgress that her concern was pumping breast milk in a space in which her male coworkers could enter. She did not explain why the stall doors did not suffice to provide her with the privacy she desired like they would in any other restroom. She also did not seem to be aware that the convention center is equipped with two lactation suites specifically to meet her needs.
There we are, conservatives creating problems where there are none. Privacy? Stall doors with locks. Breast feeding? Oh look, lactation suites! Why, you don’t have to sit in a pee station for that at all.
On Fox News, Tucker Carlson described the bathrooms as “bizarre” and “disgusting.” “I mean, I guess we’re liberated by this? Everyone should come visit one and see the reality of it. It’s unbelievable.”
Just how are they bizarre and disgusting? Let’s see, a room equipped with stalls, toilets, and sinks. There are people in there, doing what they have to do. Seems like business as usual to me.
Elizabeth Harrington of the Washington Free Beacon bemoaned that setting aside the all-gender restroom “leaves female convention goers with one fewer bathroom than male attendees,” a complaint that seemed to ignore the fact that female convention goers can actually use that restroom. She decided to film a short tour of the facility as a male colleague entered a stall:
.@BrentScher uses "All-Gender" bathroom at #DNCinPHL, which has now been taken over by male camera men pic.twitter.com/GwLTqAAnpr
— Elizabeth Harrington (@LizWFB) July 25, 2016
On her twitter feed, it finally dawned on Ms. Harrington that she had made Mr. Scher very uncomfortable, following him into the lav and filming him. She managed a weak apology. The irony is simply too much.
Harrington also shared a reader’s concern that toilet seats might be left up or down or have urine on them. It’s unclear if she has ever lived in a house or existed in any other space that only has a single-use restroom.
Harrington went on to say she walked by the all gender lav again, and it smelled so very, very bad, oh my yes! I wonder if she was this busy poking her nose in the gender designated lavs. The course of the great pee debate seems clear: ban all conservatives from lavs outside their own homes.
Conservative activist Dinesh D’Souza, who is peddling his new film Hillary’s America attacking Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, decided to stage a photo demonstrating his wife’s reaction to having used the all-gender restroom.
This is @Debber66 emerging from the "all gender" restroom at the Democratic Convention pic.twitter.com/3htLfLhLef
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) July 26, 2016
She complained to another Twitter user that when she used it, “a man walked in,” calling the experience “very disturbing.” She did not explain why.
Marcus made a just right sign for the conservatives:
Full story at Think Progress.
Did the man walk into her stall? That would be the only thing that should be disturbing her. It is labeled as an “all-gender restroom”, so that means that anyone is allowed to use it. If she wanted to use a bathroom where men did not walk in, she should have gone to one labeled for women.
They’re just mouthing off. I expect they are shocked because it was just what it purports to be -- business as usual. Oh look, Chicken Little, the sky didn’t fall.
I should have added:
Republicans--creating hyperbolic fear and controversy where none is warranted. It is what they do.
They’ve really pushed the “OMG I’m so scared” over the brink of ridicule so they can promote bigotry, hatred and fear. How can anyone believe these are honest reactions anymore? It would be such a silly act, almost Monty Pythonesqe, if not for the actual real harm they do.
Kengi:
Yeah. Harrington is a prime example -- she was stalking someone, with a camera, into a public lav. Supposedly, this is the very thing they fear. They are the immoral evil they are so fucking worked up about, and if it weren’t for the harm and damage they are doing, it would be laughable.
The last picture: Dinesh D’Souza has told his wife he’s going to break campaign finance laws with his mistress again.
They don’t have any restrooms marked “Anybody but Hillary”?
Now that’d be funny.
Why she would be comfortable pumping breastmilk in any bathroom at all is beyond me.
And following people into a bathroom with cameras. Seriously, mirrors, conservatives! Use them! Reflect!
If someone followed me into the lav with a camera, I’d be inclined to do something really really disgusting. As long as it was the lav of my birth gender, I mean. “Did you come in here to film my explosive diahrrea? Well, get that camera down at floor level and let’s see what we can do with the ugly lighting in this place…”
Why she would be comfortable pumping breastmilk in any bathroom at all is beyond me.
Is it one of those things that gets uncomfortable if you don’t?
Marcus:
Yes, it can, but it’s also a matter of preparation, if you have a babe with you, and want a bottle or three handy. The thing about that complaint is that women all over the place have complained about being stuck with having to express in lavs, because they are hardly ideal, and women fought very hard to have breastfeeding rooms implemented in public spaces, like shopping centers and so on.
So now, this same woman, who would probably moan her head off about having to express in a lav is complaining because there’s a dude in the space she decided to do that in.
I am in no way implying that Mr D’Souza will break any laws or that he has a mistress.
He did break the law (gave campaign donations in the names of his wife and mistress to circumvent the maximum allowable donation rule) in 2012 and is now on probation.
Once again, closely examine the nature of the complaints: Nothing actually happened, except for an act of criminal voyeurism perpetrated by the same conservatives claiming this is what trans women do. I swear to fucking god the hypocrisy is going to make me punch a whole in my wall.
An “All Gender Bathroom” sign is the least confusing thing in the world.
If you don’t pump? OH YES. AND HOW. OOOOOOH YEEEESSSSS. I can give you a lot more details about how uncomfortable and potentially embarrassing this can be, if you like, though I’d prefer not to.
Plus the whole idea of, basically, preparing food / feeding a baby in a bathroom… well, it’s not like a baby can complain about the sanitary conditions, but I for one despise sitting on public toilets to use them for peeing, never mind sitting in a public bathroom for any length of time for any other reason.
@Caine#10:
Exactly. I’ve had to pump for a total of about 9 or 10 weeks in my entire life when my doc boosted my meds a bit high, and in a mere 2 weeks I got a workplace policy statement that pumping shouldn’t be forced into bathrooms for reasons of both sanitation and respect. I barely needed help from a couple of moms, only one of which was lactating at the time, but it was immediately obvious that a move away from pumping in lavs had been going on for years (to the ignorance of my non-parental brain) That was, oh, I don’t know, 17 years ago? Longer?
So 17 years later, the party who tries to holier-than-thou the Dems on issues of motherhood is complaining that they just can’t get close enough to the toilet when pumping breast milk?
So are they deliberately axe-murdering their Holier-status, axe-murdering any remaining record they might have for honesty, or both?
I know what I’m betting on.
@Saad, #13:
One might think.
Me? I can picture O’RLY climbing over this fixture & that trying to find the 30 or 40 sets of genitals that the bathroom MUST have developed…after getting a solid theory of bathroom puberty, of course. [When do bathrooms develop public hair again?]
Sigh.
Dunno about bathrooms’s public hair (how often do people leave wigs, e.g., lying around?), but toilets’s pubic hairs are usually removed frequently by the cleaners.
One. Out of many. That’s like complaining that ONE out of 15 sandwiches to choose from has tuna.
+++
Seconding rq on the pumping: Never ever in a fucking toilet. I’d rather show my tits to the whole DNC than to pump or breatsfeed in a toilet.
rq
Well, there were times I could reenact the infamous EU-milklake….
+++
What happens in the USA when a bathroom is being cleaned? I mean, over here folks just put up a sign “please use the other one” and the world keeps going round.
Though I share concerns about cis men* not sitting the fuck down.
*Call me overly optimistic, but I’d think that non-male penis havers are generally a bit more aware of those issues.
BTW, while there are breastfeeding rooms in many public places like shopping centres here, breastfeeding in public is also hugely normal.
I fed like everywhere, including on a barstool. Never ever did anybody object. On the contrary, many people were trying to be helpful. It’s time some US Americans got their collective heads out of their collective asses about it.
Apparently breastfeeding was stare-worthy in the early 1990s. Not anymore, though.
Seconding the EU-milklake. *shudder* Besides, when you’re feeding, you lose the appeal of your own boobies -- I lost a lot of self-esteem issues while breastfeeding (got them back again after, of course!), because it just didn’t matter. But do it in a public bathroom? Never.
So apparently being ‘conservative’ means never, ever travelling abroad either? Because I’ve to at least a couple of countries where all gender bathrooms were the norm.
Thanks all for the info about pumping/breastfeeding. I know this is going to sound INCREDIBLY lame but I gotta be honest, I hadn’t even thought about the rather obvious health hazards of public restrooms. I cringe publicly.
At a guess, none of these people was a student at Bryn Mawr or Haverford College. The non-single sex dorms have all gender bathrooms, and have since at least the 1980’s and the single sex dorms all have at least one all gender bathroom (as determined by vote of the residents). Would have made these people’s heads asplode.
rq @ 8;
I’m pretty sure most Republicans don’t have reflections…
…. Wait, I’m getting a text…
It seems I’m in trouble with the supernatural creature anti-defamation league. Their representative, a Mr. V. Alucard, says that Vampires don’t appreciate being compared to Republicans. Apparently, some of them are evil, but none of them are that evil…