Frustrated by yet another experience of being embarrassed about using the bathroom in public, I decided to write a letter to a local establishment whose single-stalled bathrooms were designated “Men” and “Women.”
I looked for a template for this kind of complaint, and realized that templates to ask for gender-inclusive restrooms and bathrooms are not widely available, so I decided to change that.
Using a formal complaint structure, this template email thanks the manager of the restaurant, explains the importance of single-stall, gender-inclusive bathrooms for trans and nonbinary individuals, provides links and resources, and urges the general manager to take action.
The following image shows the template with the areas highlighted in gray to be filled in by the person who makes use of the template email.
Based on this template, I wrote to the general managers of the restaurant where I had the most recent bad experience using the bathroom. That email is shown here, with identifying information removed.
Here are the resources that I included in my email to the establishment in my town. You may choose to use these, or add others to better support your argument or appeal to the people in the place you live.
Resources for learning more about transgender and gender nonbinary individuals:
https://www.genderspectrum.org/quick-links/understanding-gender/
https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/Nonbinary
Information about gender-inclusive restrooms:
With this template email, it is my hope that more transgender and gender nonbinary people will feel empowered to ask for single-stall gender-inclusive restrooms in their towns and cities, and on their college campuses.
Featured image by Paul Green courtesy of Unsplash.com