a transgendered Male to Female person,living as a woman needs to use a woman's restroom. Using a Men's room or sharing a bathroom with men would be the same as for any other woman. Same Sex bathrooms do not resolve this issue. They just show how little the transgendered population is understood by the majority of Amerikans.

and really- sex offenders pretending to be transgendered in order to hurt women? uh= trans women ARE women and would not be likely to be rapists, Your stupid is showing.

but women need a 'women's room'. it's hard enough fending off unwanted attention when clothes aren't disarranged.

of course, if all men become sophisticated gentlemen, no problem. let's wait till that happens.

For me the deciding factor is quite simple: there should be no 'dicks' in women's space. This means those who are not transsexual, who have NOT crossed the divide should not be allowed in any space where their birth gender would be obvious. On the other hand, those who've not made the change ought to be allowed to use restroom facilities of their gender presentation.

For sexual predators to 'disguise' themselves AS WOMEN, rather than transgenders?? Perhaps we need police at the door to the loo right now, doing inspections to make sure we ladies really ARE ladies, or at least female?

How silly. How paranoid. How irrational. How 'Family Institute.'

Well, sure, keeping transgender people out of the bathroom appropriate to their acquired gender would stop the highly-hypothetical sex offender who wants to prey on children of the opposite sex by pretending to be transgendered. But plenty of sex offenders prey on children of their own sex. Isn't the far more effective approach to create children's-only bathrooms?

Or...radical idea here...maybe we could just stop using "Tha Children!" -- and the .000001% chance that they could be at risk -- to play on peoples' emotions for our own nefarious political ends.

We can all wear adult diapers. That way, no one ever has to use a public restroom and therefore can avoiding sex offenders.

Seriously, this is a non-issue. People who are transgendered simply want to live their life, and use the bathroom, in peace.

Although, I can't wait to see what turds of ignorance Laurel drops on this subject.

I totally understand the problem, but the fact is...I don't want to go into a bathroom with guys. Sorry, but that's just the way it is. No matter how much we sympathize, some of us are just not going to do it. Blame society, blame our conditioning, blame the ugly reality of sexual violence, but the fact remains that most women will not go into a restroom if some guy might be in there. That's just life. (Not to mention the whole problem of being able to void waste matter at all in an uncomfortable situation. I've been told more than once by guys that they literally can't pee if I'm in the bathroom with them.)

When they think of a way to reverse everyone's conditioning about sex and violence and privacy and peepee habits (which will be pretty damn hard given that we learn that stuff about the same time we learn to talk, if not before), then perhaps the road won't be so rough. But until then, it's going to be tough to pull this off. And those unisex bathrooms will stand empty most of the time.

I agree with the warning to not allow your children to go into the washroom alone at the best of times but this will endanger them even more. Pervs will take any advantage they can if they think they'll get into a womens' washroom. Since there is no way you can prove they truly are transgendered I say keep out if your transformation isn't complete. If you've got your tackle and it works use the mens' and stay out of the womens'. How the heck are women supposed to figure out if someone is just a cross dresser or transgendered? Prejudiced? Yes.

The scared men vs. the paedophiles. Oh dear lord, do you pee-shy reactionaries have a crystal ball or something? You know all this for sure?

No matter what you think/feel/believe, if you have a penis and testicles - use the damn men's room! God, don't we have better things to worry about?

I agree with your premise, but some points:

- more than a sliver of transgender people engage in hetero sex ... a point which is offset by the fact that, obviously homosexual individuals use their gender identified restroom.

- I do think that many women will be put at disease by a 6'0+ obvious male ambling about the restroom

- The possibility that some people will dress to impress assault is a possibility. Really to offset this, hardly any public restrooms are monitored of course.

What abooout... no big-room public restrooms? Perhaps more investment in the facet of completely enclosed bathroom units is the best idea. Frankly, already, more than a few male friends of mine have found themselves on the end of rather aggressive 'approaches' in men's rooms. Men have no more desire to find a lurking man outside a stall, peeking between the cracks or drilled in holes in the walls while they are trying to take a crap than women are. A friend of mine was sodomized in a public restroom at the age of about 11. Of course, any enclosed space is a potential prison. But this might allow for security cameras in the main space of the restroom area with a panopticon of all individual units. Bentham should have been a restroom attendant.

On the other hand... open air porta-potties for all? It's nice... you can look out the grill window while you resist the retch. And especially stimulating on a cold winter morning after a long night on the town!

Well, it's a concept to think about. I'm currently at a large office where the B'rooms are cleaned during hours--all the ladies get herded out of the room while the men take a shift. Seems silly, as they're all stalls. Additionally, as a gay man, I'd actually be more comfortable with unisex. It might promote a bit of intragender bonding and understanding. The men could also set a good example on how to keep a bathroom in a more sanitary condition, and I include the straight men in that.