1007
2008-05-06
2008-04-09
Safe in the
Stalls
By Greg Archer
When you look
different, the simple act of relieving yourself can have
terrifying complications.
When you look
different, the simple act of relieving yourself can have
terrifying complications.
“Public
bathrooms are a place where violence can happen to
gender-variant people,” says 23-year-old Bailey
Stevens, who cocreated Safe2Pee.org, an online
database of gender-neutral bathrooms. “There are
countless cases of people being attacked for being
wrongly perceived.”
Safe2Pee was
launched over a year ago in San Francisco and currently
identifies nearly 1,400 gender-free restrooms in more than
350 cities in North America. San Francisco has 130,
while Chicago has just 15.
The site recently
garnered mainstream attention when New York’s Museum
of Modern Art included it in an exhibit called
“Design and the Elastic Mind,” which
looks at how technology alters behavior.
Safe2Pee utilizes
mash-up technology to point out secure latrines. Much
like DJs “mashing up” two songs, the online
application merges databases with a Google Maps
application. For Safe2Pee, the results are pushpin
icons that represent bathrooms sprinkled over a map.
Safe2Pee is
overseen by a group of genderqueer hackers with a sense of
humor, says Stevens. Visitors can post new info or locations
directly onto the site.
In the future
Safe2Pee may become accessible by phone. For now, the MoMA
show is a great boost in visibility. Stevens says,
“It’s pretty wild to see the words
'genderqueer hackers collective' on the wall of a major
museum.”
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