Safe2Pee

For most people, going to the bathroom is a completely brain-dead task. No real thought has to go into which bathroom you use, and what problems you might find inside. For transgendered people though, a simple thing like going to the bathroom can become a nerve wracking experience. Which bathroom do you use? What problems might you encounter? These and other questions can enter into a transperson’s mind when trying to pick a bathroom to use. I’ve had these same thoughts myself, although only on a limited basis since I don’t pass too well right now.

In most places, you have male bathrooms and female bathrooms. Some have genderless bathrooms or family bathrooms. These are the easiest for a transperson, because no one will question them going into it, and no one will harass them for using it. I have heard that in some other countries, they have genderless bathrooms everywhere. Men and women use the same bathrooms together. People who aren’t used to bathrooms like that are afraid that they’ll be harassed or attacked in that situation, but obviously that hasn’t occurred any more often than in gender segregated bathrooms, or else they wouldn’t last. One of these days, America may have plenty of genderless bathrooms around, but for now that isn’t that case.

If you are a transgirl, you have to worry about being harassed or attacked in the men’s bathroom. This becomes more true the closer you get to looking and sounding female. The same would be true for transguys using the women’s bathroom. In fact, my friend Roger can’t even use the women’s bathroom anymore, because he looks too masculine. It’s awesome for him to be able to now use the proper restroom, although kind of ironic as well, since he has yet to begin HRT.

Female, Questioning, and Male bathroom signs.

I ran across a website a year or more ago, called Safe2Pee. It is a mashup with Google Maps, that allows people to submit bathrooms, with information about them, to the website and have them show up as markers on the embedded Google Maps. You can see if they are gendered or genderless, if you need to pay or can walk in and use them, and find directions to the bathroom as well. Currently they have nearly 1,600 bathrooms listed in 414 cities and three countries. They have also opened up a beta for Europe, which can be accessed at the top of the page.

While it misses plenty of bathrooms, as all the listings are user submitted, it can be a great resource, especially in large cities like San Francisco, CA or Las Vegas, NV. Our very own Albuquerque, NM has only a paltry eight bathrooms listed, which is something I wouldn’t mind helping out with once I get the time. Of course, if you find it lacking, you can always fill in the blanks for your city. While this will probably not be of much use to our cisgendered family and friends, it can be of great use for the transgendered.