As the 2024 election continues in earnest, each side continues to lob accusations of being “weird” at one another. With the DNC wrapped up, some conservatives are pointing the finger at what they believe to be Democrats’ obsession with gender and the erasure of women. Kamala Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, has faced criticism for a policy he signed to have tampons placed in the boys’ bathrooms at schools, earning him the moniker “Tampon Tim” by some. Such criticisms had conservatives raising eyebrows at some of the “gender-neutral” decisions made at the DNC.
Conservative Graham Allen pointed out the replacement of women’s bathrooms for gender-neutral ones with a picture of one bathroom labeled “Men’s Restrooms” and another labeled “Gender Neutral Restrooms.” “I guess women don’t exist at the DNC Convention,” wrote Allen. In 2016, when the DNC was being held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, a women’s restroom had also been repurposed into and gender-neutral restroom. There were also gender-neutral prayer rooms made available featuring Islamic prayer mats as well as separate prayer rooms designated for just men and women. “This has to be a joke,” wrote journalist Miranda Devine. “They sure do love their segregation,” wrote Amy Curtis for Twitchy. “But given Islam’s view of the trans issue, it’s a little insulting to have a ‘gender neutral’ prayer room specifically decked out for Islamic prayer, no? Regardless, yeesh. What a bad look.”
A fact-check by Sportskeeda took umbrage at the implied claim that all the women’s bathrooms had been replaced by gender-neutral ones, claiming that such a statement was false and that there were restrooms specifically designated for women as well. The article noted that the convention was held at the United Center in Chicago, and there were five gender-neutral bathrooms available, one on each level. The fact-check did, however, appear to support the idea that at least some women’s restrooms had been repurposed, noting that there were 26 men’s restrooms and 21 women’s restrooms.