Oregon's "Menstrual Dignity Act" will require schools to put menstruation products in boy's bathrooms

submitted by GenderbenderShe/her/hers from self.GCdebatesQT

https://ktvl.com/news/local/oregon-public-schools-will-put-period-products-instructions-in-every-student-bathroom

What do you think? I'm for it. I don't feel bathrooms should be segregated anyway, but obviously some students who menstruate use the boy's bathrooms so this will make menstruation products equally accessible to them.

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[–]loveSloaneDebate King 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I think most of the feminine hygiene products put in boys bathrooms will just be played with/opened up and looked at/thrown at each other etc by some of the actual boys in the schools more than they’ll benefit any girls who use the boys room, realistically

[–]MarkTwainiac 8 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Boys will stuff the san pro down the toilets too. This will cause floods; create headaches and extra work for the janitors, cleaners and administrators in charge of building maintenance; make the restrooms less hygienic and less safe for human health; and will put the toilets and out of order, meaning less access for all. So much for inclusion, eh?

The pathogenic microbes found in human feces will have a field day, though. So there's that.

[–]BiologyIsReal 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Scottish schoolgirls ‘boycott gender-neutral toilets’

From the article (bolding mine):

The introduction of gender-neutral toilets in Scottish schools hasn’t panned out as activists hoped, with girls in one school reportedly refusing to use the facilities due to misbehaviour and vandalism by boys.

[...] Scottish Borders Councillor Harry Scott told a council meeting on Thursday that in one school, “there have been instances of boys waving sanitary products like flags and urinating in sanitary bins,” according to the Southern Reporter.

[–]MarkTwainiac 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

The law seems to be missing an important element. It says that dispensers for new, unused products for menstruation (and other forms of bleeding and discharge that issue from the vagina) must be placed in all public school restrooms, including the boys' toilets. But the law doesn't appear to require that a dedicated receptacle for the disposal of used menstrual/vaginal discharge products be placed in each toilet stall, and in every single-user toilet, as is customary.

In most jurisdictions, health codes and/or other laws stipulate that every toilet meant to be used by girls and women must have within easy reach a waste bin specifically for the disposal of used and usually bloodied female hygiene products. Most codes that I have seen also require that the waste bins be designed in a certain way - enclosed by a hinged lid that flips up and down in a snap, and which is operated by a foot pedal so that girls/women don't have to touch the device with the hands.

I wonder if the drafters of this law consulted any female school administrators, school cleaners, school custodians, the PTA, gynecologists, female health educators, or any mums or older girls in the upper grades of HS - or any young women who've recently graduated. Or any group of people who've had decades of first-hand experience dealing with discharge of sloughed-off uterine tissue, blood, blood clots and other bodily fluids from their vaginas.

If the law stipulates that receptacles for dispensing of san pro be provided, but not that receptacles for safe, hygienic disposal of them after use be provided too, the obvious question is: what are the girls and "trans boys" who are presumed will now be rushing to use the boys' toilets during their periods supposed to do with the bloodied tampons and pads they've removed?

By focusing solely on providing dispensers of menstrual/vaginal discharge products but paying no mind to the matter of how and where these products are to be disposed of after use, it seems that the legislators and activists involved here are creating situations that will lead to more embarrassment, awkwardness, indignity and undue burdens for the class of people now dubbed "menstruators," "bleeders" and "uterus havers" - not less.

[–]HeimdeklediROAR 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Meanwhile the republicans will ban all menstruation products at school