Pocatello - Again (and again and afreakin' ain)

And we were so close. 

In May of this year Pocatello held an election to see if the community supported an ordnance that had already passed through the city counsel last year.  Pocatello officials state that 4,943 Pocatellans voted to keep the ordnance intact, with 4,863 people voting to rescind the law.

There are two sides to this issue.

"Yes Pocatello" says that it is a property rights issue. As in "you can't force us to allow certain people to use our public restrooms".

"Fair Pocatello" says that the ordinance protects certain people from being discriminated against, as in "certain people can be told they can't use a public restroom".

As if there was any doubt as to who the certain people were. Let me say that NPH couldn't find a pot to -- well, you know -- in Pocatello, especially if he was dressed like Hedwig of Broadway fame.

On their way to Pocatello

To pee or not to pee.

Frankly, I don't care who goes to the bathroom in public facilities. I don't have any germ phobias or the like.  And even if I did, a transgendered person would have no more germs than anyone else. Generally speaking I have a small container of Handy wipes that I have at my disposal for disposal wherever I am -- so to speak.  I highly recommend them for bathroom occasions, and would recommend them to Yes Pocatello, Fair Pocatello and everybody in between.

All this energy spent on where transgendered people can urinate has got me wondering. Shouldn't we, as people -- not just Pocatellans, be spending our time on really important issues, like changing the Pocatello High mascot to the Prepy the potato, or whether gay people can be married or not. If Pocatello doesn't want gay people urinating down town, then stop trying to attract their business.  If they spend money down town, odds are they are going to have to pee.  So just ban them outright and they won't come downtown let alone be there to leave anything behind.

By the way, if we earnestly wanted to vote on ordinances that would do some real good, let's vote on whether or not Mormon's should be allowed in public areas. I personally am tired of cleaning up after all those kids. And their parents clog up the drive-through at McDonald's like you wouldn't believe. It makes it hard for me to get my Big Mac fix for the day having to wait after those big families.

Let's just go back in time to when white people only fountains and bathrooms were the norm. Those were the good ol' days when men were men and heels were cads or bounders and not stilettos.

For the last few months public restrooms all the way around. Yes Pocatello wants a recount. Yes the margin of victory was that small that it would make sense to ask for a re-count. If I was wearing that shoe, I would probably ask for a re-count as well. However, I am not wearing that shoe.

Regardless of my personal feelings towards the person who may ask me -- as a business owner -- to use my restroom, I think I would have allowed for customers of my store -- or patrons of a public or civic area -- to use the john regardless of whether they wore eyeliner or cowboy boots.  Shouldn't we all should have the right to pee?  Or is that not in the constitution?

The recount, which was ordered on last month's vote that retained an ordinance banning discrimination against folks because of their sexual orientation or gender identity starts tomorrow morning. It was made necessary due to the insistence of those who opposed the city ordinance approved by the Pocatello City Council in June 2013, which was upheld by 80-ish votes on May 20 of this year.

May those 80-ish votes be enough.