BATHROOMS: Respect everyone’s anxieties

Ms. Norby’s Feb. 15 letter makes some good points. Clarification of the bill would help. 

A single-restroom business should not have to add another. Likely such businesses are not like restaurants where people stay for significant periods, so I expect traffic for those restrooms will be light, if there is any. Finding a bathroom when needed can really help people at times. I do not want to force businesses to change ones in current use.  

Most single bathrooms only accommodate one person at a time. Every unisex bathroom I have encountered here fits this design.

There are documented incidents in schools, gyms and other venues where people sharing common bathroom spaces conflict with each other. More so since the “trans issue” became a “progressive” cause.  

As the father and grandfather of minors, I accompany the kids when they have to go. Sadly, some people out there I don’t trust to act honorably in common spaces. If Ms. Norby doesn’t know of any instances, I am sure that a little homework would be telling. There is a problem, perhaps mild here, more so elsewhere. 

Where Ms. Nordby loses my support is, in a demonstration of inclusiveness, tolerance of others unlike her, and understanding of “public spaces” is this quote: “If an individual’s personal anxieties are so profound that they cannot share a hallway or sink area with another human being, the solution is simple: they can stay home.” What a statement about those with “personal anxieties.” Ms. Norby doesn’t have any, apparently, and nobody should have any she disapproves of.  

Define “public?” And what other concepts does Ms. Nordby consider “profound wrong think” to exclude from “public spaces?”

G. H. SCHIRTZINGER
Hayden