How do you feel about transgender people using the same bathroom as you?
(Answered question from Quora.)
Back when I was hanging out in Lower Manhattan, when SoHo wasn’t a shopping mall, and there were TWO punk rock cathedrals in town, I used to often encounter places with rest rooms labeled “People” (or somesuch, there were variations). Also, sometimes rather tall and hairy humans wearing female attire were to be found in the “Ladies” room.
It didn’t bother me. Both were part of the Boho Experience. The “People” rooms were single-occupancy, and usually had whimsical signage about getting high and tying the place up (pun intended), and the hairy folks never bothered me, except as a curiosity. As it’s been remarked before, women’s rooms only have stalls. In my day, women in front of the mirror chatted, and sometimes, I’d offer a shy compliment.
I’m 5′3″ (at most) and my favored fighting technique is to slap, scream loudly, and then apologize profusely. At no time did I feel threatened. I suppose, if it had come to that, I would have made enough of a ruckus to alert, not just the waitstaff, but the whole restaurant. Cops would be called. The (female) manager would probably trounce (i.e. beat the stuffing out of) the would-be attacker, and offer me something potable. The male waitstaff would swear to shun this impostor, at the very least.(He'd never be welcome at the Ninth Circle ever again.)
In short, I was safer there than I was back home.
And now, this pleasant state of affairs will be spread across the Nation.
I welcome it.