One of the horrible truths reality will present you with if you decide to go through with a sex-change operation is that the entire rest of the world may not immediately adjust to your new gender status. Your life may get a bit more complicated on various fronts, one of which is bathroom use.
If you thought you could undergo such a complete changeover in your life without suffering some consequences, or that others would be so sensitive to your every need that you would never encounter difficulties, you were either suffering great delusions—or were not properly informed or briefed before you began your transition to another sex.
As it is, when you go to a public place, and are worried about bathroom use, you have a number of responsible options you can employ:
- Hold it in—this might work if you have a large bladder (or intestine), especially if you do a little planning (see following option).
- Go before you get there—use the facilities where you live, or somewhere between where you're coming from and the public place you're going to. Convenience stores, gas stations, shopping malls tend to have single-person restrooms; it's your job to find and use them.
- Use a single-person restroom—many public places have single-person restrooms for anyone to use, and if you're the only one in there and you lock the door behind you, life goes on.
- Use a restroom reserved for those with special needs—what used to be called handicapped bathrooms, or those set aside for disabled people, are designed to be used by all those with "special needs". You now qualify in this category: you have special needs and may now use Federally-mandated public restrooms.
- Ask someone to stand outside—a time-honored tradition for special bathroom use, one that's been used by parents, coworkers, and friends since time began, is to have someone stand outside the facility to fend off other users.
Of course, you could always use the facilities as anyone else would, by doing your best impression of a person of the proper gender for the facility, not intentionally drawing undue attention to yourself, being as unobtrusive as possible, and not making anyone uncomfortable around you.
For the most part, nobody's paying too much attention to you (sorry). You're not being excluded, you're barely being noticed. Your not being marginalized. Your rights are not being infringed. It's just that few even care you're there—if you behave like a responsible person.
So you don't need to make a Federal case of it, create a victimhood movement, accuse the rest of us of intolerance and bigotry, or burn the whole world down around you. You can instead behave in a responsible manner, take your life in your own hands, and make the best of things.
You were the one who decided to change your gender, adjusting to the world as it is now on you.
SOURCE: "
Bathroom Bigotry", The Catechesis of Caroline; February 25, 2017.
