The Stream

taken from urinalstream @ twitter.com

HELLO
Like peeing when you need to…?

Seems like a basic human right, no?
must be nice…..
70 yr old HELENA STONE used the restroom
in her workplace @grandcentralstation NY
when three police men kicked in the door,
dragged her out,
& proceeded to humiliate HELENA
in public before handcuffing her
because she needed to pee
and because she was a transgender woman.
In fear, she began to pee in the privacy of her office
in a disposable coffee cup
and washed her hands with spit.
This incident was preceded by six months of harassment
HELENA experienced daily.
Many transgender men & women
use public restrooms reluctantly —
fearful of rape,
humiliation,
battery,
assault,
& arrest
both by other restroom patrons
and those law enforcements meant to protect.
S. BEAR BERGMAN uses the term:
“TRANNY BLADDER”
to describe the resulted ability
of many transgendered adults
to hold their urine
for extended periods of time
in order to find a safe place to pee with less risk.
This often leads to medical complications
including UTIs, kidneystones, ETC…
Some will refuse liquid all day
to avoid having to use the restroom all together.
TRANSFESTO.COM describes a transfriendly world
as one w/ gender-neutral bathrooms
everywhere required to provide restrooms
although not all transgender individuals would choose to make use of them
“And they shouldn’t have to.”
Others, including HELENA advocate this
as well as sensitivity training,
education, & destruction of harmful stereotypes
of transgender individuals
as pedofiles and “Peeping Toms.”
@UCSD, only 33 of ~340 buildings on campus
have single occupancy restrooms.
We need to change to help provide
a safe space for our transgendered
students and faculty —
providing more genderneutral bathrooms,
as well as educating to raise
transgender awareness.
Thanks for reading URINALSTREAM
Happy peeing.