Spiritual group sues over San Francisco’s open-air urinal
Apparently peeing outdoors is not everyone's cup of tea.
A religious group and several local residents have sued the City and County of San Francisco over the new outdoor urinal in Mission Dolores Park, calling it a “shameful” invasion of privacy and decency.
The San Francisco Chinese Christian Union, along with several neighbors of the park, filed a 25-page civil lawsuit in San Francisco County Superior Court on Thursday alleging gender and disability discrimination, as well as violations of health and sanitation codes.
The urinal, which city officials call the “pissoir,” opened in January as the city's latest measure to combat public urination. It was part of a major park renovation that included new irrigation systems, playgrounds and restrooms.
The open-air urinal, next to a Muni streetcar stop, consists of a concrete slab with a drain and a circular fence that offers limited privacy. It is located near the southwest corner of the park, affectionately known as the “gay beach.”
The San Francisco Chinese Christian Union, described in the suit as a religious nonprofit organization that includes 15 churches, and other plaintiffs said in their suit that the “sewage hole” forces unsuspecting parkgoers to see strangers' genitals in a public park. It also discriminates against people who need to pee but don't want to do so outdoors, the suit says.
“The outdoor urination hole violates the privacy of those who need to use the restroom but must expose their bodies and endure the shame and humiliation of urinating in public,” the lawsuit states. “Seclusion when defecating is a societal norm and represents one of the most basic expectations of privacy.”
The urinal is also unfair to women, the lawsuit says.
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“The hole provided for outdoor urination is particularly egregious for women and girls,” the lawsuit states. Using this facility would subject women to “extreme embarrassment not experienced by men or boys who merely unzip their pants and pee all over the place.” [sic] when urinating.”
The plaintiffs are represented by the Sacramento-based Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative legal group that is pushing to overturn a state law that requires public schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms and play on sports teams of the gender with which they identify.
“If San Francisco wants to be truly progressive, it needs to have public parks that are accessible to everyone, not just certain groups,” Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, said in an interview. “The city is not above the law. They put the urinal in a place where people will see it, whether they want it or not.”
The office of San Francisco City Attorney Dennis J. Herrera issued a cheeky statement in response to the lawsuit on Friday, titled “Isn't That a Urinal?!”, saying Dolores Park is “famous for its counterculture, rampant sunbathing, hash brownies, 'Hunky Jesus' and more.”
“If I had to predict the 100 things in Dolores Park that would likely most offend these plaintiffs, I would not have guessed this would be among them,” Matt Dorsey, a spokesman for Herrera, said in the statement.
The residents of the neighborhood had campaigned for the urinal, the statement said.
The prosecution pointed out in its statement that the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified the Pacific Justice Institute as an anti-LGBT hate group.
Dacus rejected the designation, saying it came from a “very far-left extremist organization” and said the city was “desperately trying to distract from the real issues” in the lawsuit.
hailey.branson@latimes.com
Follow me at @haileybranson / Google+
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