Harvard is so far out in front that they came up with a solution to the transgender bathroom conundrum more than 100 years ago. I recently attended an event at the Harvard Club of Boston, built in 1913, and noticed the sign below:
[In case you’re curious about the event, I was enjoying lunch at the East Coast Aero Club table for the Aero Club of New England‘s annual Godfrey L. Cabot Award presentation to Clay Lacy (see this “human fly” video of a guy standing on top of a four-engine DC-8 airliner at 300 mph).]
doesn’t “Powder Room” have connotation of space for females (or “those currently identifying as female” as you might put it) to re-apply their lipstick, powder, etc.???? Just thinking your 14 yo nephew would probably be too embarrassed to enter a “Powder Room,” assuming he could figure out what that somewhat archaic term even means (we don’t belong to a country club).
The powder room dates further back than that in the US, and probably further back than that in the royal palaces of Britain.
a powder room – a closet where a man or woman of the 1700s could have a wig re-powdered
http://www.williamsburgprivatetours.com/old-colonial-era-idioms-sayings-we-use-today/
Adding a toilet being a relatively modern upgrade, is that Harvard Club room for one person only?
since judges & barristers in the UK still wear wigs, I’m assuming a British child would be more familiar?