FLUSHING OUT PUBLIC BATHROOMS

Recently, there has been a great deal of movement involving public bathrooms after the federal government issued "guidelines" that would enable users in public schools to access public toilets based upon the gender with which they identify instead of the gender specified on their birth certificates.

Schools, public institutions and businesses face the prospect of accommodating these or similar guidelines. Issues of privacy or even safety could arise with multi-stall restrooms previously designated by "original" gender, such as "men" and "women." With movement to so-called transgender facilities, multi-stall toilets likely will be phased out in favor of single-user restrooms.

It has been reported that one large airport plans to remodel its public restrooms to convert them to single-user rooms which will be labeled separately for woman, child, man, transgender and wheelchair.

Single-user bathrooms formerly known as as "unisex" now are said to be called "gender neutral" or "all genders."

Creating new public single-user bathrooms to accommodate perceived gender identity could conflict with another important cause--control of climate change. All the resulting remodeling construction and energy demand could contribute to global warming. Accordingly, toilets and climate change may merge into a global issue.

Another issue is what to call single-user facilities. They can be called "bathrooms", but no one can bathe in them. They can be called "restrooms", but no one enters them to rest. They can be called "water closets" or "WC", but no one goes into them to obtain water. They can be called "powder rooms", but there is no powder in them. They can be called "toilets", but the room is not a toilet. So, in addition to the issue of gender identification, there also is an issue of room identification. Perhaps, a solution for both issues could simply be to have a door with a question mark.

The ultimate concern may be whether the federal government should be involved with who can use a public toilet. Thirteen states have filed suit against the guidelines contending that public bathrooms are a matter only for state and local law. In an opinion released August 21, a federal judge in the litigation temporarily enjoined the federal guidelines, finding that, in effect, they were binding regulations, and that the government failed to follow applicable procedures for adoption of regulations.

Admittedly, the federal government already regulates toilets. However, a quick reading of the U.S. Constitution fails to disclose an enumerated federal power to regulate their usage.