The new Milwaukee Bucks arena—brought to you by Fiserv, okay definitely not Fiserv, okay probably Fiserv—is more or less complete. It opens this fall. And when it does, it’ll have something that few NBA arenas have: gender-neutral bathrooms.
On Twitter Tuesday night, Bucks Senior Vice President Alex Lasry responded to a tweet regarding the arena’s ban on plastic straws. “…and will also have all non-gender bathrooms, right?” someone tweeted at Lasry. “You [sic] damn right we’ll have some gender neutral bathrooms,” Lasry replied.
You damn right we’ll have some gender neutral bathrooms https://t.co/ztE8vSI79B
— Alex Lasry (@AlexanderLasry) June 6, 2018
According to TMJ4, the one-stall gender-neutral bathrooms (marked “All Gender”) will only make up a small fraction of the arena’s bathrooms, though “patrons will be able to find them on every level.” “There are people who identify differently,” Lasry later told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Everyone deserves a chance to feel comfortable when they visit the arena and that includes when they use the bathroom.”
The response to the earth-shattering news has been—you’re never going to believe this—mixed. On one side, there are people of all genders who want to use the bathroom in peace and feel safe and comfortable and, hell, maybe the other lines are too long. On the other…oh for god’s sake people, it’s 2018. Just go to the bathroom and have done with it.