The search for a clean and accessible restroom, already challenging in many urban environments, becomes especially arduous for women and men who are trans or gender ambiguous, as they face harassment, discrimination, hostility, violence and arrest for using the “wrong” bathroom.

“I’ve personally experienced restroom discrimination for most of my life,” genderqueer filmmaker Shani Heckman says. “As a female athlete who was always very masculine identified, I’ve gotten physically ill from the thought of entering women’s restrooms.  I refuse to change myself to fit into one of society’s boxes and instead want to work for spaces that allow everyone to enter no matter how they define.” 

Heckman, who identifies as a “manly woman,” has produced queer events in San Francisco for over a decade.  Her first film, Another Day, was an experimental, silent short that explored gender fluidity, while 2005’s documentary, Wrong Bathroom (Shanestar.org) was inspired by Heckman’s experiences in bathroom discrimination.

“Wrong Bathroom informs [viewers] that gender is flexible and fluid.  It can bring about…discussions about social justice in general.  It’s inherently about access for all to public space in general.”

Heckman’s latest work, a feature-length documentary, America’s Most Unwanted: Stories of Hope from Former Foster Kids will focus on foster kids who’ve become accomplished adults. An orphan and former ward of the state, Heckman refers to her own experience in the system as, “living hell.”

While Heckman uses film to raise awareness, the genderqueer collective behind Safe2Pee.org are creating a searchable, map able database of restrooms that provide relative safety for trans and genderqueer individuals.

Founder, San Franciscan Bailey Stevens says, “The typically gendered space of bathrooms has always been a little uncomfortable to me. As a genderqueer person I sometimes find it difficult to locate safe, comfortable places to pee. I’d seen projects like San Francisco’s PISSR and the Boston Relief Map…but many of the resources once available have now vanished.”

Displaying information on gender-neutral or single stall facilities, the site is set up so that anyone can add a new bathroom, make comments or upload a photograph.  Stevens launched a basic web site during the 2006 holiday season and immediately saw the directory take off. 

“Within our first two weeks on the web, we had over 250 bathrooms.  Now we’ve got over 750, in 226 cities,” he says.

A “hackers collective” quickly joined Stevens in improving the site.  Recently they added a way to look at the data in Google Earth, and even download the information to individual iPods. 

Safe2Pee.org’s ultimate goal is to create a comprehensive, worldwide resource for finding gender-neutral bathrooms, and to aid others in using the information.  They’re in the process of filing for grants and coordinating with advocacy groups, but, Stevens admits, the all-volunteer collective isn’t able to spend as much time on the project as they’d like.

“We’re a little behind on…[allowing] users to find bathrooms by distance, gender status, accessibility, and how readily available a bathroom is.  We have limited resources, so there’ll probably be limitations on what we can accomplish.”

Still, Stevens is enthusiastic about the project and sees it assisting more than just trans and genderqueer individuals. 

“Oppression of all kinds is related. Public restrooms are a place where harassment, violence, limitation and discrimination can play out for many people, not only those within the gender variant spectrum. This resource…can benefit many people, [including] parents and those with privacy concerns or access and assistance needs.”

“Those in the broader LGBT community may face harassment in bathrooms too,” Stevens argues.  “It’s worth asking, how many of us haven’t been questioned or had uncomfortable experiences in bathrooms, trans or not?”

Blind Curves, the first Blind Eye mystery co-authored by trans writer Jacob Anderson-Minshall, is available now through powells.com. Contact jake@trans-nation.org or visit Anderson-minshall.com for more information.