AUSTIN, Texas -- The Texas Senate, spurred by the case of a Houston woman ticketed for using the men's room at a crowded concert hall, adopted a 'potty parity' bill Wednesday designed to relieve long lines at women's public restrooms.
The bill would require large sports and entertainment facilities built or renovated after 1991 to have twice as many women's restrooms as men's restrooms.
The measure will be sent to the state House for a vote. If approved there, it will then go to the governor.
Bill sponsor state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos said the issue was 'crystalized' by the case of Denise Wells, who was ticketed and ejected from a George Strait concert at Houston's Summit arena last year after using the men's restroom.
She said she went into the men's room after twice trying to wait out long lines outside the women's room, and then watching a man take his girlfriend into the men's facility.
Wells, who paid $125 to attend the concert, was acquitted last November of charges she violated a city ordinance against using a bathroom for the opposite sex in a disruptive manner. Some testimony in the case -- dubbed 'Pottygate' by the Houston media -- focused on the number of bathroom stalls and urinals in the Summit restrooms.
Barrientos said the problem of long lines at women's restrooms 'occurs with all too frequent regularity,' and he urged the Senate to recognize it as a 'real equity issue.'
'No, potty parity is certainly not the most important matter facing the state of Texas,' he said. 'Still, I think all of us realize that the failure to provide restroom facilities in proportion to the legitimate differences between men and women amounts to little more than institutionalized sexism.
'We ought to send the message that in Texas, we won't accept this in the future,' Barrientos said.
The bill would require the Texas Department of Health to adopt rules forcing a 2:1 ratio of women's restrooms to men's rooms in sports and entertainment facilities, stadiums, community and convention halls, specialty event centers and amusement facilities built or significantly renovated on or after Jan. 1, 1992. The bill applies to publicly and privately owned facilities.
After the bill was adopted, Barrientos told his colleagues, 'The women of Texas thank you.'
