Alamo Founder Creates Waves With Bathroom Proposal

Amidst the bigoted bathroom debate, a light has emerged from the doors of the Alamo Drafthouse. On Tuesday, Facebook users were greeted with a post from the founder, Tim League, detailing proposed bathroom plans for Alamo’s new Mueller location. The post opened up the designs for public comment with compassion and compromise in mind.

“Instead of taking sides on whether or not sexual predators will be invading the restrooms of our stores or public schools, we’ve been thinking about what an inclusive commercial gender-neutral restroom design might look like so that these challenges are not even part of the dialogue,” League said.

There were the typical closed-minded and snippy replies one might expect, but the responses were largely constructive and well-rounded. Dispersed throughout the conversation, Alamo confirmed things like: “Real doors and walls for sure!” which would allow these new spaces to focus more on safety and dignity for all rather than binary gender standards people are supposed to meet.

Roughly seven hours after the initial post, some conversations had gone off the rails. In response to one Twitter conversation, League logged a follow-up clarifying his platform.

“My intent on the previous post was to discuss architectural design details for the proposed bathroom. But as to ‘taking sides,’ I have taken a side. My side is that bigotry and the associated violence and/or shaming stemming from your choice of stall is unacceptable. But changing that mindset is likely going to take a long time. My hope is that by changing the design of restrooms we can, in the meantime, avoid some potential violence,” League stated.

Overall, League is using his status as a business leader to promote upward change, and looking out for people with a variety of needs. This is a chance to work together for positive growth.

League's full original statement, posted Tuesday afternoon:

The issue of gender neutral restrooms has gotten a bit… heated. Instead of taking sides on whether or not sexual predators will be invading the restrooms of our stores or public schools, we’ve been thinking about what an inclusive commercial gender-neutral restroom design might look like so that these challenges are not even part of the dialogue.

I’ve been working with our architect Richard Weiss for the past couple of weeks to come up with a restroom design for our upcoming Mueller location in Austin, Texas that 1) meets city codes, 2) is comfortable for all genders, and 3) gets the job done. The consensus was that we’d have a room with “standing" toilets (heck, we’re even looking at those all-gender urinals) and individual rooms with sinks, mirrors and trash cans in each room, our “seated” toilet area. I don’t want to have any “men” or “women” signs in the building.

The attached drawing is a general layout. Larger ADA accessible bathrooms would be across the hall and those would be equipped with baby changing stations.

Here’s where we are so far. I’d like to open it up to comment. We’ve got a little bit of time to figure this out, so any feedback you may have would be greatly appreciated! - Tim League, founder Alamo Drafthouse