“Unisex mini-bathrooms would address not only the issue of transgender bathroom usage, but also of privacy and modesty concerns generally”

The rise of sexual liberty as a fundamental right, together with the collective realization that many people do not fit neatly into the category of male or female, is creating a bathroom controversy. This controversy focuses on people who are not part of the traditional male-female binary that has been a part of the American culture for centuries.

Americans have considered the myriad of questions — philosophical, religious, legal, and practical — and homed in on a single mundane issue: which bathroom transgender individuals should use. The secular legal system is in the process of handling the public policy arguments on both sides of this novel issue.

The solution is to change our bathrooms rather than our ethics. Regardless of the side of the moral argument on which one falls, a better bathroom solves the problems. Unisex mini-bathrooms would address not only the issue of transgender bathroom usage, but also of privacy and modesty concerns generally.

Rabbi Michael J. Broyde and Amy D. Katz, “A Jewish Solution on Transgender Bathrooms”, The Jewish Week (1 July 2016), 18.