When I was 16, alone in the house late at night, a man started breaking in the backdoor. I got away, but a 12-year-old a few streets away wasn’t so lucky. He hit her in the head with a brick.

This terrifying experience triggered a lifetime awareness of risky locations. I have learned that public bathrooms are dicey spots for women.

Such as:

*In Mesa, a 14-yr-old girl was sexually assaulted in a public bathroom and left unconscious and bleeding.

*A group of boys sexually assaulted a 14-year-old in a Kingsville, Texas, bathroom.

*In California, at a valley mall, a little girl was assaulted.

*In Los Angeles, a six-year-old boy was molested in a bathroom stall.

*A man, waiting in the bathroom, attacked an Oakland, Cal., woman.

*At a Houston library, a man slipped under the stall and sexually assaulted a six-year-old boy.

*At a Taylor Meyer store, a man assaulted a woman in the ladies room.

The Detroit police said, “Women should always use caution when using a public restroom. Upon entering, quickly ascertain if anyone else is in the bathroom and, if they seem suspicious, leave immediately.”

I ask:

How can one tell the difference between a predator dressed as a woman and a transgender person?

How can a woman tell the difference between a transgender who is physically and legally a woman and one who still has male plumbing?

What about privacy? Does it make any difference to you that many men who feel like women are still heterosexual? What about women’s’ feelings, don’t they count?

And the most important question, why place women and children in a risky and uncomfortable position instead of fighting for stores, like Target, to create a third bathroom that says “His/Hers” or “unisex?”