Pee in Safety!

In Ithaca, New York, at least. 

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As I've written here before, bathrooms are the ground zero of the transgender social movement. Talk to a transman or transwoman-or to many "gender nonconforming" folks (i.e., women who are very butch and men who are very fey)-and you'll hear about the fury, hostility, threats, and assaults that can result from using either bathroom. Go into the women's, and you can get yelled at for not being a real woman. Go into the men's, ditto. To avoid risking the hostility and the threat of attack, many end up "holding it" for long periods of time, day after day, resulting in kidney and bladder infections.

Wouldn't you want to be able to go potty without being threatened, assaulted, or raped for looking a little different from every other guy or gal? When you really, really have to pee, you don't necessarily want to have to do Trans Education 101: You just want to use a toilet.

Well, here comes another reason to love Planned Parenthood: Its Ithaca, New York, chapter has created a "pee in peace" iPhone app for the area. Here's the description:

Pee in Peace is the premiere interactive map of MOST single stall and gender neutral restrooms in Ithaca, New York. ... For anyone who needs quick and easy access to a private bathroom-from caregivers for people of a different sex, to anyone who just prefers a private place, and especially for transgender and gender non-conforming people who may have a specific need for safe and private restrooms. Everyone deserves a place to pee in peace, right here in Ithaca, New York.

There's also Safe2Pee.org, where you can enter your location and get a Google map of single-stall and other gender-neutral area restrooms. What (ahem) relief!

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