Toilets: It's Time to Air Out the Issue
Sanitation plays an integral role in the quality of our lives, whether we want to talk about it or not.
Toilets do more to define our lives than we probably care to admit. They’re essential to health and lifestyle. In bathrooms, we can find identity. In toilets, health. Behind the locked door of a tin shack with a seat and a hole, dignity.
It might seem ridiculous, as most people just go with no thought to it. It’s not a part of the day that typically makes it into conversations. But this affects everyone, either directly or indirectly.
In bathrooms, we can find identity.
When people can’t properly relieve waste in their homes or aren’t informed about sanitary ways to do so, disease spreads and people (especially children) suffer. This is a widespread issue particularly plaguing developing nations where population is outpacing infrastructure.
When people make the choice between a public restroom labeled with or without a dress, they commit to or are forced to commit to an idea of their gender. This is subtle bigotry that leads to excruciating experiences for many middle and high school students.
When people wander the streets with nowhere to go until they are forced to squat in the shadowy corner of a stairwell, they leave a piece of their dignity on the pavement. This is part of a systematic denial of humanity to homeless people.
Solutions for these problems have long been within reach but are seldom discussed. There are people, however, all over the world working hard to change that.
All-gender bathrooms
Some cities do it now: single-stall restrooms, private and public, that are designated “all-gender” or just “restroom.” Seattle, Philadelphia, and Toilets: It's Time to Air Out the Issue by Joe Scott — YES! Magazine:
