Earlier this year, the City of San Francisco renovated Dolores Park. The renovation included an open-air urinal, which in this case simply means a sheet of plastic affixed to a semicircular wire framework above a hole in the ground. The city maintains the urinal was needed because men were unable or unwilling to control their bodily functions. The urinal is right next to a streetcar stop frequented by men, women, and children.
The public urinal, which is open from three sides, has upset some San Francisco residents. On February 4, the Pacific Justice Institute, representing the San Francisco Chinese Christian Union, sent a “cure and correct” letter to Phil Ginsburg, General Manager of the city’s Recreation and Parks Department. The letter reads “the act of public urination causes innocent members of the community to unwillingly and unexpectedly be exposed to intimate parts of a stranger’s body… the open-air place provided for urination is a public nuisance. It is inconsistent with community standards, illegal, and creates a public health risk.”
On April 18, the San Francisco Gate reported that as the issue was not “cured and corrected,” the San Francisco Chinese Christian Union is suing the city to have the urinal removed.
The Chinese Christian Union is an association of San Francisco’s Protestant denominations, and has been active in both the right to life and the defense of marriage movements. The group has been a regular presence at San Francisco’s Walk for Life West Coast, and one of their members, Frank Lee, gave the invocation in 2010. Lee also serves as chairman of the San Francisco Bay Area Advisory Board of the Pacific Justice Institute.
The complaint asks for an order “enjoining the continued unlawful and wasteful expenditure of tax dollars on maintaining, and holding open for use to the public, the pissoir; and an order, pursuant to CCP §526a, enjoining future installations and maintenance of pissoirs within the jurisdiction of the City and County of San Francisco.”
The San Francisco City attorney responded with a press release that even the Gate termed “very snarky.” The headline of the release read: “Ain’t that a pissoir?!” Followed by the subhead: “Conservative group sues San Francisco over ‘pissoir’ facility at local park famous for its counter culture, immodest sunbathing, pot brownies, ‘Hunky Jesus’ and more.”
City Attorney spokesman Matt Dorsey, a longtime parishioner and former parish council member of San Francisco’s Most Holy Redeemer Church, remarked that “if I had to predict the top 100 things in Dolores Park likely to offend these plaintiffs, I wouldn’t have guessed that this would make the cut.”
Most of San Francisco used to be a beautiful, classy city. When I was a young woman, it was called “The City”, and women dressed up to go to the downtown area with a nice dress or skirt and blouse, high heels, and a hat with gloves.
Years later a friend and I went on the fast rail to go to a concert, and cross dressing men were using the women’s restrooms there to change clothing and God only knows what else. There were men standing around the women’s area waiting for a transvestite to come out. I never went back but once for a game.
Actually, it was quite a few years later that my friend and I went there, Nevertheless, my husband and I went there during the sixties and seventies, and it had already started downhill.
I also meant to write, “Good for the Chinese Christians and others.” Who would want their city vulgarized like that.
It’s time for Christians and others to become intolerant (Yes intolerant! Not very P.C. is it?) of the filth and insanity in our society.
Become intolerant?
Bathrooms seem to be all he news these days. Architects are moving toward single use restrooms to give us all more privacy which should also help the who-uses-which-bathroom controversy the southern legislatures are so worked up about.
I can see the city’s point. Men with prostate problems, among others, need to go urgently but why can’t they spend a few extra dollars and build real bathrooms.
They did greatly improve the bathroom situation, but nobody expected Dolores Park to experience the enormous upsurge in popularity it has experienced in the last couple of years. It really has gone from being the favorite tanning spot of the gays, a hangout for a nice group of Mission Latinos, and a handful of dogs and their owners… to being THE weekend destination of thousands and thousands of people. But about the pissour…nobody uses it. I think the screen is designed for ivy to grow on to provide cover, but it still hasn’t grow in yet. Nobody even uses it! I’m guessing the Chinese Christians have never been to Europe where they are quite coming, and maybe not even to China, where public toilets have no seats and one squats in…
C&H, there is danger for women with letting men who claim they are women go into women’s restrooms. There have been quite a few beatings and rapes by men dressed as women going into more secluded women’s restrooms that do not lock. It seems that most newer stores have one stall restrooms and dressing rooms now, which does make people safer. Nevertheless, often it makes the wait to use such restrooms much longer. I do not know whether or not one stall locked restrooms are costlier to construct. That would be an issue also.
No there haven’t been such cases of a transgender person beating up a person in a restroom. Even Donald Trump says so. If you have an example, please provide it, because nobody can find an instance in which a tRans person has committed such crimes. And by the way, they are crimes. Use of a bathroom for urination and such is not a crime. Until now.
Anne T..I don’t think there are very many attacks by crossdressers, much less by true male to female transgender people. We had a terrible rape in my doctor’s building. A man who had been harassing a girl on the bus followed her into a single use restroom before she could lock the door. He didn’t have to dress as a woman. The real effect of these bathroom laws will be that female-to-male transgenders will be forced to use the ladies room which will freak out any women there. Male-to-female transgenders will also be forced to go into the men’s room which understandably frightens them.
I don’t think the authors of these bills have thought through the implications.
C&H and YFC, it is blatantly false that there are no transgender sex offenders. There is a video on line called “Women Decide for Yourselves” (about men who dress as women, attack and kill women, often raping them or have been rapists of women. The video gives the names, pictures, pictures of their criminal files and their crimes against women, and sometimes children. There are many more than twenty-five, but there were too many to list in that video.
Also, many male rapists want to be called women and dress as women so they can be housed in women’s prisons. Some have been to the horror of the real women already in the prison. These people should be put in their own facilities so they can harm no one and not have access to vulnerable women.
Anne T….As an example from my earlier post, this is Shannon Minter.
https://www.nclrights.org/about-us/staff/shannon-price-minter/
I met him once at a reception. He is very nice, however I don’t think we want him to be forced to use the ladies room, especially if you and I were in it at the time.
C &H, I am not saying that all or most of these people rape or assault, but enough men have dressed as women and done so that it makes it very scary.
I have noticed, though, that at some more secluded places the state now has guards. An example is that my husband and I stopped at a really nice, clean road side rest area while on a trip, and there were a lot of stalls for both the men’s and women’s area, but there were guards outside,
God BLESS the Chinese Christian Union!
We must all speak up when things that are immoral are shoved down our throats!