AT HOME WITH THE HOMELESS: Small progress on public bathroom access

By Andrew Williams on June 15, 2023

Assemblyperson Sharon Quirk-Silva, our representative in the State Legislature, has introduced a bill that contains some needed reform in public restroom access. As you’ll see from the enclosed text, it’s still a long way from granting even limited 24/7 access to restrooms in the state, but at least, if the bill is passed, the funding will exist to create a searchable database of available bathrooms.

From the digest to the proposed bill, AB 1297: “This bill would require each local government, as defined, to complete an inventory of public restrooms owned and maintained by the local government, either directly or by contract, that are available to the general population in its jurisdiction by July 1, 2024. The bill would require local governments to report their findings to the State Department of Public Health, which would be required to compile the information and to make the inventory available in a searchable database on its internet website by March 1, 2025, as specified. The bill would require the database to be updated quarterly. The bill would require the department to conduct educational outreach to the general public and homelessness service providers that the database is available on its internet website.”

However, the actual bill states that “The internet website shall contain a notice stating that the database does not guarantee the hours of operation or the accessibility of a listed restroom.” So, bathroom locations will be provided, but there is no guarantee that they will be accessible during given hours or at all. Also, the database will not be available for almost two more years. And there is no provision made for the construction of new public facilities, merely a guide to existing ones. Still, it is a first step. Hopefully, there will be many more to come. At least there is recognition that the lack of public facilities is an issue that desperately needs addressing.

In the meantime, anyone who wants to contact me privately will get a list of public bathrooms in Fullerton and their hours of availability. This is not an exhaustive list, and it has not been thoroughly researched, but it will hopefully save you some legwork. Email: wandrew1963@gmail.com.

And now for something completely different…

By the time this column sees print, the production of The Sound of Music at Rolling Hills Elementary, and the controversy regarding the appearance of a Nazi flag and other Nazi paraphernalia, will be old news. Some parents apparently feel elementary school children are too young to learn about fascism. Which begs the question: How young is too young? Let’s remember that Anne Frank was 11 years old when the Nazis came to power in the Netherlands. Apparently she wasn’t considered too young to learn there is evil in the world.

We are facing an existential crisis in America. One group–accused of being ‘woke,’ a label that this writer proudly wears–is intent on preserving ALL of America’s history: good, bad, and ugly. The other group has a vision of America never having enslaved others, never having interfered in the affairs of other sovereign governments, never having unjustly confined or imprisoned millions for their race alone. Anything that contests that vision or suggests that sexuality is more complex than the simplicity of cisgenders must be banned. Apparently, we haven’t learned the lessons of fascism since that is exactly what the Nazis did with books, music, and films they considered decadent. They did not dispute the information they contained. They simply got rid of them by banning and burning them.

We cannot. We must not sit idly by while others wring their hands and cry, “Won’t somebody please think of the children?” Shutting down production of The Sound of Music because it contains Nazi imagery that might upset children is an insult to children. It implies that they are too young to learn that there is evil in the world and that it must be fought at every turn.

Do we want our children to be unprepared for that reality? Do we want to whitewash history so that distressing thoughts need not be thought? If so, then we are in line for the world depicted in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. As one of the characters explains: “A book is a loaded gun in the house next door.” There are too many people in this world who believe that, who believe that books should be banned and burned, but not guns. To them, ideas are more dangerous than actual weapons.

We are Americans. We have the right to think unpopular thoughts, to speak unspeakable truths. And if our schools won’t teach us, then we’ll have to learn on our own.

Better days are coming…if we work for them.