Bathroom Break

The uproar over North Carolina's bathroom law has put the state and its governor, Pat McCrory, who is up for re-election this year (North Carolina is one of a handful of states that hold gubernatorial elections in a presidential election year), in a tight spot, and civil-rights activists were winning the fight over the issue of whether a state can force transgender people to use the bathroom corresponding to their sex at birth.  Now, however, the Obama administration has issued guidelines decreeing that public schools allow transgender students to use bathrooms matching their chosen gender identity.  Not surprisingly, some commentators are accusing the White House of federal overreach, and the lieutenant governor of Texas has equated promising to follow the guidelines to ensure receipt of federal money for schools to betraying Jesus by taking "thirty pieces of silver."  Once again, a nation without much culture is fighting a culture war.

Excuse me, fellas, but could you please see me in my office?  Because I think I have a solution to what to do about transgender bathroom facilities.  How about . . . more public single-use unisex bathrooms?  Consider this:  You could have regular men's and ladies' multi-toilet rooms and also have single-use bathrooms anyone could use . . . including transgender people who may not feel comfortable using the multi-facility single-sex bathrooms!  Look, there aren't that many transgender Americans to begin with, so it's not one unisex toilet in any establishment will cause a long line or anything!  If some places have a large transgender clientele, they simply get . . . more unisex bathrooms!

Also: Think of the extra business that plumbers will get in installing extra bathrooms for transgender customers in public establishments!  How about extra business for American Standard and Kohler, to make the toilets, and the porcelain factories who make the material for them?  Peace of mind for any people who hear the call of nature in public - that is, all of us - and a boost for the toilet manufacturers and plumbers, creating more economic activity!  Everyone's a winner!

And if Texas wants to refuse federal school funding over transgender restrooms, let it.  It obviously hasn't helped.