Pearl-clutching at the restroom door

A man and a woman were having dinner with friends at a Nashville restaurant, and decided to visit the restroom. Both of them entered the ladies’ room.

Immediately pearls were clutched throughout the building. A poor hapless employee was tasked to go to the restroom and order them to leave. They returned to their table, and the manager then visited the table to tell them that men are not allowed in the ladies’ room because “we are a family restaurant that welcomes children.”

The owner then felt the need to post on social media about this incident, declaring “there may be a politically motivated divide on this issue but it’s my pub and my rules.”

Actually, no, there are laws about this sort of thing, but not in Tennessee since their ridiculous “post a warning” rule for places with all-gender restrooms was ruled unconstitutional. Other states have laws for or against allowing all-gender restrooms (and they’re pretty much the states you’d expect — oh Florida.)

So declaring “it’s my pub, it’s my rules” is pretty disingenuous, to be generous with the language. No one gets to declare “it’s my pub” and have separate bathrooms for Black and white patrons, remember? They did pass that law in Tennessee.

There’s no indication from the kerfuffle that the couple were doing anything other than relieving themselves, and I think most everyone’s pretty solid on “get a room” for any other kind of activity. There’s no explanation offered, such as perhaps a…