My dear sister Arlene posted a piece about public restrooms at her new site, Beyond Genderland. Public restrooms can include any restroom available to the public; restrooms at restaurants, cinemas, amusement parks, and shopping centres. Sometimes these restrooms are maintained impeccably clean and other times they are barely maintained at all. I try to avoid the latter at all costs and have found that when out at shopping centers, seek out the better stores and use their facilities. Usually, but not always, the upscale stores will maintain their restrooms because of the better clientele they are seeking. However, similar to Arlene, I try to avoid using public restrooms if I can. Sometimes nature has other ideas and I am forced to go into a public restroom.

I will differ from Arlene when it comes to cross dressers using the ladies room. I do not want to share a restroom with a cross dresser. Why? I don’t want to share a restroom with a cross dresser because cross dressers are men, not women. Also, as a transsexual, I am trying hard to be accepted as a woman by other women. Just one cross dresser using the ladies as a man (standing to urinate for instance) can do a lot of harm in getting that acceptance. I would be quickly labeled the same. This is one area where Stealth would be so nice. If I could easily pass as a non-transsexual woman it would help with the whole public restroom issue. However, like many other transwomen, I can not pass and yet I do not want to be forced into using the men’s room. Single use restrooms would be the answer, but they are not always available. To date I have not had any problems using public restrooms, but I do dread that someday it may happen. While there are not any laws concerning men using women’s and women using men’s restrooms here in NC., I can be arrested for causing a public disturbance.