The sexes At concerts or maybe a Mavs game, we’ve pitied those women forced by long lines and nature’s impatient call to make a mad dash to their male counterparts’ less crowded stalls. Unorthodox, but no big deal, right?
Wrong-at least for the Houston woman who gained national attention after being busted for cross-johning at the Summit. She was charged with violating a city ordinance forbidding anyone to use a rest room designated for members of the opposite sex.
It could happen here, says D. KEVIN LEEHAN, assistant city attorney. Dallas has an ordinance governing just about every detail on the subject of bathrooms (there’s even one devoted solely to the thickness of bathroom doors), including ordinance numbers 14971 and 15084. “A person commits an offense if he enters a portion of the building without consent of the owner if the portion of the building entered is conspicuously marked to give notice that entry is restricted to a specific class of persons of which the actor is not a member.”
So cross-johning is illegal. According to Leehan and the collective memory of the city attorney’s office, however, only men have been busted for the crime. ’’To our knowledge, no female has ever gotten into trouble over this,” Leehan says. Does that raise the specter of discrimination? Will Assistant DA DAVID PICKETT move to stamp out this nasty habit? He may not have to. DAVE BROWN, Reunion’s business manager, says that about two years ago the arena added 20 more women’s restrooms to take care of those foot-stamping lines. And Starplex’s general manager LARRY FONTANA says his staff is alert to the problem: “We’ve shut down men’s bathrooms before and designated them as women’s when we see lines start to get out of hand.” -Lucie Nelka
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