All of us deeply care about and want all our area school kids to be safe with bathrooms, locker rooms, sports, etc., when it comes to sex/gender issue concerns. That is our common ground from which I think it is urgent and absolutely necessary that we all commit to using conflict resolution and mediation resources, like school districts use to successfully negotiate contracts with their employees each year, to find ways to keep all of our kids safe in the most compassionate, civil, respectful, peaceful, effective, and healing way possible. I can think of no better way to empower all of our kids than to show them, right here, right now, in every way we can, how to constructively work through by respectfully brainstorming, negotiating, and compromising to find real solutions to this conflict.
And then to lobby our local lawmakers to enact it. That is the urgent opportunity we have right here, right now. If we fail to seize it and instead let ourselves stay trapped in a cycle of each group reducing the other down to labels like “insane” and “hateful” then we will only fuel the divisiveness, hurt, and fear, which I think leads to increasing extremism, which in turn increasingly threatens our democracy as founded on our Constitution and its amendments including the Bill of Rights.
So, I ask all of us, right here, right now: Area school board members, area community members, area lawmakers, and myself, who of us is open to participating in area community working groups to seek out and implement conflict resolution and mediation resources to constructively and respectfully find real solutions to this conflict?
Lorraine Kitman
Arroyo Grande
This article appears in Best of SLO County 2025.
Has anyone ever had a problem with anyone in the restroom ever? Like in the 4 decades of life I can’t remember a single issue of someone being sexual or inappropriate in the bathroom.
I don’t think you all understand the unspoken rules our society has about restrooms. When u cause a disturbance in a restroom due to inappropriate behavior..
u get beaten lumpy by everyone like the shoe bomber on that airplane back in the day.
It is just one of those things we all just instinctively know. Those that do getting weird in the restroom, well they crazy anyways and they were going to do weird things in the restroom regardless if it is women or men or unisex.
Seriously when was the last time u heard of anything bad happening in a busy restroom? Bad things seem to only happen when ur ALONE in a low traffic bathroom.
People need to poop and pee when they need to poop and pee and as I get older I could care less wtf the label on the restroom is or who is in it, all I care about is can I go in so I can go do my business. Female, male, trans, gay lesbian, what ever.. I really don’t care, it all comes out relatively the same and we all make the same stupid noises.
UPSIDE of communal bathrooms, I guarantee hand washing amongst both sexes will increase, cause right now us guys I see only 20% wash their hands on the way out, it is why I absolutely hate shaking hands with other men and was so happy when a fist bump became acceptable.
Also I am interested in finding out how many of u women actually wash your hands on the way out, cause if I find out less than 70% of u wash hands on the way out, I am just gonna stop letting you all hug me in greeting.