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Everyone.
At some point, all of us have found ourselves in need of a toilet without one around. This month, we want to highlight some of those stories to show just how widespread the lack of toilet access is in our community, and what a difference more toilets will make.
Shoppers
“I live in the mountains, 40 minutes from my grocery store. So, when I go to town, it is a BIG trip and I stock up. It takes TIME to do all that shopping and errand running. Of course I need to go to the bathroom during that big trip. So I know where all the public bathrooms are and I laugh that, sometimes, the order of my errands follows the pattern of my toilet needs: ‘Good bathroom here, so that errand should be after the Starbucks I drank to power me through the errands.’”
Menstruating Folks
“I was on a raft trip, three weeks in the arctic with my parents’ friends as a 15-year-old girl. I learned to navigate not just how to find privacy for groover spots on sometimes treeless beaches, but also how to deal with the potential mess of menstruating without running water. Quite the learning curve. It gave me an even deeper appreciation for the sanitary conditions I’d grown up in, especially compared to what other people in the world experience on a daily basis.”
Workers
“I work in the plumbing industry. Sometimes I’m on a job and ask, “Is there a bathroom that I could use?” Even if I’m up in Aspen and I know they’ve got 12 other bathrooms I could use, they’ll say, “Sorry, no.” So in my head, I think, No problem, I’ll just go pee in the woods behind your house! since the closest gas station is sometimes half an hour away.”
“I work at a ski area, and if we’re up on the mountain for the day doing repairs, you can’t go back to the base area every time you need to go to the bathroom. You end up peeing in the woods, and hoping you already did your pooping for the day.”
Families
“We were at the playground, my son was about 4. Regularly, there wouldn’t be a bathroom when he needed one, so we would go behind a bush discreetly so that he could pee when he needed to. One time, we were at someone’s house and he didn’t want to stop playing in the yard, so he went behind a bush to pee, then kept on playing. The woman whose house it was looked at me, I looked at her, and I felt a wash of shame. I said, “Oh son, we don’t pee outside, we can go inside for that!” But I later reflected, it must be super confusing for a little boy to get the message, As long as no one sees you pee, it’s okay, but as soon as someone sees you - even when it’s a friend - it’s the worst thing in the world.”
Unsheltered Folks
“I was strolling around when I felt the urge to use the restroom. I have had multiple kids and it’s difficult to hold in my stool once I get the urge. I became nervous knowing the nearest restroom available to me was miles away. Pooping in public can get you in trouble with the cops and private businesses turn away unhoused individuals trying to use their restroom. On my way to the nearest restroom, I passed public toilets that had been locked up. I never made it to the accessible toilet miles away. Instead, I pooped my pants. I felt embarrassed and ashamed. I think everybody would be in that situation. I think accessible toilets would increase the hygiene of the community.”
Travelers
“Traveling in Europe by train, I suddenly needed a toilet. I found a bathroom in a train station but didn’t have the coins to open the toilet stall. The increasing intestinal discomfort motivated me to climb over the 6 foot door. Thirty years ago, when this event occurred, I had no problem climbing back and forth over that door. Older and less flexible now, I wonder what I would do in the same situation.”
“I landed in Mongolia to visit friends who were there to teach English…. At my ultimate destination, the “bathroom” was two boards across a hole in the ground. I didn’t think those boards would support me. Yet it was the only option. I was scared. But I didn’t fall in. Even at the school - a college - it was a similar hole in the ground. No running water. No plumbing. I wanted to kiss the ground when I got home to my flush toilet.”
Recreators
“On one run in particular, [my team and I] had run out to the desert and were making our way back to our meeting place at Sherwood Park when I got hit with a grumble in my stomach…. [I] decided I desperately needed to duck into The Coffee Traders, [but I] I was without a phone or wallet so purchasing something was out of the question…. I decided to run home. I had just made it down the hill on 26 ½ when my body decided to take matters into its own hands and I was ever so thankful I decided to wear my running shorts with a liner that day. I waddled the rest of the way home mortified, flung open the door to my house without so much as a greeting to my mom and made a beeline to the shower.”
“I love camping, so I’ve spent a lot of time learning how to go to the bathroom in the wilderness…. But I think what woke me up to Toilet Equity is going to the bathroom in the woods after my knee surgery. My body just didn’t squat as easily as it did before the surgery, and I realized that I felt a vulnerability that I didn’t feel when I was younger. Everything was harder. Getting up, getting down. Navigating pants. But I still got to choose to head into the woods. Today I’m thinking about the people for whom squatting is hard and who don’t have that choice.”
“I was running along the Colorado River when the infamous “Runner’s trot” hit me. Luckily, I was near a developed section of the river and a bathroom was less than 50 yards away. With a sigh of relief, I jogged to the bathroom, grabbed the handle, and was met with a “clunk”. The bathroom was locked. Frustrated and wondering what I was supposed to do, it dawned on me that hundreds of people in the valley faced this problem every day. Can you imagine?”
This widespread lack of toilet access is gaining publicity recently. From a Scottish Parliament report to a class-action lawsuit against Amazon by some of its delivery drivers, stories of commuters, workers, and other community members needing a toilet and not having one are becoming more widespread.
So, what is your Toilet Story?
You can read the full version of some of these Toilet Stories and more on our website.
This article originally appeared in our December 2024 newsletter.
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