The other day at McDonald's Restaurant my wife and I had to use the restroom. As usual, she went into the women's restroom and I went into the men's restroom.

I found the only stall to be locked with nobody in it and with no way to unlock it. This presented a problem as I always sit to pee. Since we were on a trip and would not be stopping for awhile, I could see no other choice. I opened the door to the women's restroom and saw that it had 2 stalls, one vacant with my wife in the other one. I entered the stall, closed the door and peed. My wife was still in the other stall when I finished so I washed my hands, informed her of what I had done and left the restroom.

It was a more pleasant experience than the men's restroom as there was not urine splashed all over the floor and toilet seat. However, there was a few drops on the seat.

The biggest disappointment was that nobody came in to see me there and to question me as to why I was using the women's restroom.

I have been in the men's restroom when women have used it because of long lines at the women's restroom. However, I have not seen men using the women's restroom when women are presant. Why should it not be acceptable either way?

Not to mention all the germs you find in a men’s room, with pee all over the walls and floor, you can just feel the germs jumping to you as you walk in the door. You can just imagine how many germs are on you by the time you leave, when you need to set to pee you know those germs are jumping ship right then and there.

makes me want to shower for an hour.

Question mac, are you and your wife into water sports ? Don’t knock it tell you have tried it and forget the germs.

:tongueout :tongueout :tongueout :tongueout :tongueout

My experiences in women's johns has been pleasant... but nobody knows I have been in them...Too bad Americans have a singular view of sex, sexual relations and the human body. We all need to relieve ourselves, as its a natural bodily function.Sounds like you picked times when you were assured of being alone. What if women were present in the restroom when you used it?

...

Riverwind (imported) wrote: Mon Jul 29, 2002 6:43 pm Not to mention all the germs you find in a men’s room, with pee all over the walls and floor, you can just feel the germs jumping to you as you walk in the door. You can just imagine how many germs are on you by the time you leave, when you need to set to pee you know those germs are jumping ship right then and there.

Ahhh...I hate to pee on anyone's parade, but urine is sterile when it is excreted from the body. In fact, it contains much less micro-organisms than tap water.

Usually, the smell from urea, the waste product in urine, is what causes the odor. It is usually the case that the surfaces in public restrooms has many less micro-organisms than found on the kitchen countertops and dining tables in eating establishments.

When you think about this it makes sense because the countertops and dining tables are never wiped clean with anti-septic cleansers. Usually, they just use damp towels. Assuming that there are micro-organisms present, (as they are everywhere) this just tends to spread them around, thus innoculating everyplace with micro-organisms to grow into large colonies.

Urine can also be concentrated by evaporative processes to obtain concentrated urea, which can be used as knock-out medication. It is the original date-rape drug. When used in the dosages that it takes to cause unconsciousness it is undetectable by common laboratory tests. If somebody dies from an overdose it is detectable. In large doses it can be fatal, so as they say, play safe.

If you play around with this you damn well better have a strong chemistry background and know what you are doing.

Why do I tell you guys this stuff? Am I crazy?



A-1

> I would not have a problem with unisex multiuser

> restrooms if the stalls offered adequate privacy and the

> men treated the women with respect.

>

> However, urinals would have to be eliminated and men

> would have to raise the seat if they stand to pee.

Why eliminate the urinals? For people who want to use them, it's faster and takes up less room than an entire toilet stall, so I think it's useful from an efficiency point of view.

Women can use them too, if they know the technique and their urethra is located forward enough on their body. http://www.restrooms.org/standing.html explains how some women do it.

I am a man who does not stand up to pee, but I *like* the presence of urinals because it means that other men who use the public restrooms will be more likely to pee in the urinals, rather on the toilet seat that I sit on. Even though I don't directly use the urinal, its presence helps me.

Ok, leave the urinals in a seperate area of the restroom but make them unisex with privacy partitions for those who prefer to use them.

Congratulations Allison,

You are finally beginning to make some sense here and realizing that not everyone can conform to your IDEAS.

Mac (imported) wrote: Mon Jul 29, 2002 4:54 pm I have been in the men's restroom when women have used it because of long lines at the women's restroom. However, I have not seen men using the women's restroom when women are presant. Why should it not be acceptable either way?

As a transgendered woman I think I understand why women would not want a man in the room with them. I am not yet transitioned, so I still use the mens room at work, and a good half of my male coworkers can give me the jitters just by being there in the room. I've actually had a few guys harass me in the room. A couple of times I had to literally shove my way out of a stall after being cornered by a guy who wanted to bother me. Not all of the men act like this, but just having a six foot, vulgar, and rowdy person in the next stall gives me the creeps, even if it's one of those persons who usually just ignore me. I can't imagine women wanting to have men sharing their restroom with them.

One of the mens rooms has no locks or latches on the stall doors, and the other room has latches that can be opened from either inside or outside, and it would be all too easy for someone to just come in and act out whatever nasty idea they have in mind.

Then again, maybe men aren't too accepting of women in the restroom with them either. At a Missouri chicken plant I used to work at in 1994, the upper management somehow made the mistake of scheduling the cleaning lady to clean the mens room during the time that one of the large departments took their first main break. She would just open the door when there were about 10 to 15 men in the restroom and adjacent locker area, and the guys would make quite an uproar and demand to know why she had to clean during their breaktime. Then every man would leave the room before she started cleaning, and nobody would use it before she left. This went on for a couple of weeks before the management let her change her daily schedule.

Then there were the days of two or three years ago when I was starting to get out as myself, but I needed electrolysis so badly because I had a beard shadow that defied any attempt to cover it up with makeup. I knew I would have problems in the womens room, so I tried to avoid the restrooms altogether. But occasionally I would make such a long trip that I couldn't avoid this, so I would use the mens. I didn't want to get in trouble in the womens room, but the men would give me funny looks that I rarely received outside the restrooms.

Last year I had had enough electrolysis that I could pass. But I still didn't want to take any chances of being read in a womens room in a small Oklahoma town over 200 miles from home. Well a man entered and saw me at the sink, and he instantly ran back out and would not return until I left the room.

Even though I haven't come out, my coworkers do not accept me as a real man. I do painting work on Saturdays to put in a few extra hours. Just after the Fourth of July they asked me to paint the stalls in one of the mens rooms. One guy seemed to wait a little while for me to finish. When I left the room, he assumed I was finished with my work and went in. But I had left merely to get something, and as soon as I returned he got out of there before he intended to leave, and gave me an irate expression as he exited.

While I understand a woman's discomfort with men in the restroom, I am not so sure about a man's apparent discomfort with a woman in the room. Some of the men at work resent the cleaning lady and just see her as someone who tells them how to keep the bathroom neat or washes whatever they wrote on the wall. I guess men perceive themselves the superior sex and fear that women in their restroom would undermine that.

Sherry (imported) wrote: Wed Jul 31, 2002 2:04 pm While I understand a woman's discomfort with men in the restroom, I am not so sure about a man's apparent discomfort with a woman in the room. Some of the men at work resent the cleaning lady and just see her as someone who tells them how to keep the bathroom neat or washes whatever they wrote on the wall. I guess men perceive themselves the superior sex and fear that women in their restroom would undermine that.

One of my most vivid memories of my drinking days was attending the Munich Octoberfest in 1971 or so. Yes, the real genuine one in Munich, Germany. All the restrooms had plenty of urinals, and plenty of stalls. The problem of keeping the stalls clean was the job of elderly women, right there in the room, and none of the German males thought anything of it. It was that routine. You were expected to tip her if you used a stall, as she was to clean it right away.

The gay film festival has adopted a useful convention for their upcoming event. The objective is to make TSs welcome. The male and female labels are removed from the washroom doors. In their place is a list of the facilities available (johns, urinals and handicapped equipped). Women may choose to enter the washroom equipped with urinals if they wish, and men may choose to use the one without urinals if that's their desire.

The gay film festival ..

JeffEunuch (imported) wrote: Sat Aug 03, 2002 6:59 am . The male and female labels are removed from the washroom doors. In their place is a list of the facilities available (johns, urinals and handicapped equipped). Women may choose to enter the washroom equipped with urinals if they wish, and men may choose to use the one without urinals if that's their desire.

It is becoming more common to see women using men’s public restrooms. As a man, I am neither threatened nor intimidated by a woman in an adjacent stall in the restroom. My concern is the lack of privacy and the limited number of stalls in many men’s public restrooms.

Men’s public restrooms frequently have only one or two stalls, a minimum quantity for the number of men who use the restroom. The stalls frequently have only 5-foot high walls allowing a person of average height to look over them with ease. The urinals are lined up along one wall and expose the user to the unobstructed view of all who pass. I am uncomfortable with this lack of privacy when only men are present.

Women have more stalls and a much greater degree of privacy in their public restrooms. If it becomes common practice for women to use men’s public restrooms, we would have to be provided more stalls and additional privacy. Those would be welcome improvements. However women would have to reciprocate and open their public restrooms to us.

As a more equitable solution, why don’t we just have multi-user unisex public restrooms with an adequate number of stalls and unisex urinals with privacy partitions? This would eliminate all complaints of sexual inequality.