Restrooms: Do We Need Them?

A couple weeks ago one of my coworkers popped back into the staff area to tell us a patron had complained that two men were having sex in our one-person men's restroom, and he wanted her to do something about it. She thought it was a problem best referred to her supervisor.

We got a good giggle over this, as the guy who made the complaint spends most of his time in the library looking for guy-guy "casual encounters" online.


Coworker: "He said there are two men in the bathroom, they've been in there for a long time, and he thinks they're having sex. I listened at the door but didn't hear anything. What should I do?"

Supervisor: "I bet he's jealous! I'll come out in 15 minutes, and if the door is still locked, I'll knock and ask if anyone needs help. That should be plenty of time for a blowjob."

Coworker: "I don't even know why he's so sure there's anything going on in there. He didn't actually see two men enter!"

Me: "I guess if anyone would know about casual sex in public bathrooms, it would be him."


So after the 15 minutes had passed, the supervisor checked the bathroom and found it empty and clean, with no evidence of any sort of sexual activity, drug activity (which we thought was more likely), or any other wrongdoing. Kind of a let-down, actually.

Supervisor: "If there was any sex, they cleaned up after themselves. At least they were considerate about it."

Then early this week, the same patron who made the complaint about the alleged bathroom sex came up to me and asked that we put up a sign in the men's room telling people to limit their use to 10 minutes or less, because he thinks people (mostly teenagers) are in there too long. It's apparently too much trouble for him to take the elevator up a level and use the other men's restroom.

Of course, the young man who vomited all over that bathroom yesterday wouldn't have had time to clean it up had we implemented a 10-minute time limit. So I'm inclined to let people use the restroom for however long they desire, as long as I don't have to clean it up.