In this article, Emily Bazelon discusses how public restrooms should be a place where one feels comfortable because they are in vulnerable space. She states people don’t want to feel threatened or scared when they enter the bathroom. Society has dictated which restrooms people use by placing signs or pictures depicting a male or female figure on the doors.

Bazelon makes a call for action directed towards the designers of public places to make bathrooms more accommodating for everyone. She talks about how transgender students want to be able to change in their desired gender locker rooms at schools and how schools are handling this issue.

She compares the issue of transgender people not being able to use the bathroom to disabled individuals “who are shut out by doors they [can] not open and stairs they [can] not climb”. She states that if society can be accommodating for people with disabilities, then we should also be accommodating for transgender people who want to be able to “shower near [their] peers in [their] own stall”.

Schools have made an effort to make these individuals feel included by allowing them to participate in sports and using these students’ preferred pronouns. The author wants to bring attention to fact that transgender people are not treated equally.

• “Making Bathrooms More ‘Accommodating’”