New York State Senator Introduces Bill To Require Diaper Changing Tables In Men's Restrooms

Submitted by Mastodon on Sat, 2015-04-18 00:58

Story here. Excerpt:

'New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) wants to bring the call for potty parity into the political sphere. On April 17, Hoylman is introducing a new bill in the state Senate that would mandate equal access to diaper changing tables for both men and women.

The proposed bill is calls for the amendment to the New York State Civil Rights Law with the addition of a new section 79-o. If the bill passes, any public building or "place of public accommodation, resort, or amusement" that is constructed or undergoing "substantial renovation" after the passage must provide changing stations in men's bathrooms if it includes them in women's restrooms.

“It’s time for men to pick up the slack in raising our kids, and this is part of that responsibility," Hoylman told The Huffington Post."

The senator said his own personal experience as a gay dad inspired him to draft this bill. Hoylman and his husband David Sigal have a 4-year-old daughter named Silvia, and "on numerous occasions" when she was an infant, the parents were forced to change her diaper on bathroom floors, in hallways, and outside in parking lots due to the lack of changing tables in men's rooms.

Hoylman believes that this shortage of diaper stations in men's bathrooms is "an anachronism that reflects the bias toward women being the caregiver," he said, adding, "That’s simply not the case today. In addition to same sex couples of men and men in heterosexual couples, there are also a lot of single male parents out there too."'

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... and more how he's spinning it. It'd've been much more politick, and correct, for him to have said instead that men have the right to the same conveniences with regard access to resources in the public sphere as do women that assist them in being parents. Instead, he decided to put the male-bashing spin on it. How typical, but not surprising.

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Submitted by Matt on Sun, 2015-04-19 04:00

He had trouble posting this for tech'l reasons, so I'm doing so at his request:

It really is a shame how motions set forth to benefit men have to be laced with misandric comments.

For starters, the comment in this article that men need to pick up the slack in raising kids, being spoken by a man who admits things are not like they are in the 1950s, and that men are doing far more than they used to re: raising kids. Yet, he still has to chide men for. . . taking a greater role in raising their kids, but not picking up the slack. . .

Ok. . . makes sense to me. [/s]

I remember one time my university was h@ving an event for movember. A man who had lost a testicle to cancer came by to speak to us and tell his story. At one point in his speech he said, "a man with both testicles has six times more testosterone than he needs to survive. So, ladies, if you're wondering why us guys can be such knee-heads, that's why."

I couldn't help but think to myself, "wow, imagine someone making a comment like that about women at an event to raise breast cancer awareness."

I was tempted to say something, but felt too sorry for the man.

Society clearly still has a long way to go before men are valued as much as women.

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Submitted by Matt on Tue, 2015-04-21 04:05