Where Should Trans People Go To Poop and Pee?

Quick test: You really have to pee. Which bathroom do you use, the one with the stick figure on the door, or the one with the stick figure and the little triangle?

OK, now which bathroom should this guy use?

He was born female, but now he’s a contender for Men’s Health cover model. Everybody’s gotta pee sometimes. Where would you send him?

OK, then how about this guy? The US Army says he’s a woman, but he disagrees. Which restroom would you like him to use?

Or how about this guy? He was born female. Would you insist he use the ladies room?

On the other, uh, sex, this is Laverne Cox, one of the breakout stars of Orange Is The New Black. Where should she go to pee? She was born male, so would you point her to the men’s room?

Or how about this woman? Does she look like she’d fit in the men’s room? Would she be safe there?

Or how about this woman. Raise your hand if you think she should be using the mens room.

The idea of transgender people using bathrooms is one of those issues that should not be complicated.

Everyone needs to pee where they feel most comfortable. And when faced with the gender-sorted bathrooms, people should use the gender-labeled space that fits the gender they are expressing.

It is true this may make some people uncomfortable, but, well, lets all be nice to each other out there, people. And remember, bathrooms are not sacred spaces, their primary role is hygiene – just a place where we can drop the kids off at the pool, adjust ourselves with a bit of privacy, maybe wash our face if the paper towel rack hasn’t gone all empty again, and then head back into the world with a renewed sense of relief.

Or we could just change the signs…

Lana Wachowski On Being Transgender

Lana Wachowski at HRC

Astonishing. Lana Wachowski tells her story, and you should watch.

Lana was one of the Wachowski brothers when they made The Matrix, V for Vendetta, and other films, and co-directed the new movie Cloud Atlas as Lana, now part of the brother-sister pair with her brother Andy.

I could tell more of her story but I recommend listening to it in her words as Lana is both charming and devastatingly powerful. Click through here to watch her powerful speech.

[Update]

Cloud Atlas Movie Review

Brilliant. One of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. But it is not for everyone. Having read the book, I knew what we were getting into and my suggestion to any viewer: Go see it. Sit back and enjoy. Do not try to make sense of the intertwining plot threads. Enough will make sense for the movie to work, and the rest will tease your brain, but you have to let go of linear thinking.

In the end I was left thinking of Don McLean’s song American Pie. Who knows what it means, but it remains a timeless beauty nonetheless.

Cloud Atlas is not put together like a typical movie. It is a piece of art to be enjoyed for the easy parts and then puzzled over for its depths. Some of it will never make sense, but then that is true of so much good art.