Last night I went out for a few drinks after my last shift at work. We walked around a few different places and ended up finding somewhere we could get in. All fine and dandy, it was absolutely rammed – as you’d expect the Friday before Xmas, and there was football on. We found a little corner then as one of the groups got smaller they kindly offered us their spare table.
As you do, when you have a few drinks – or any liquid, I started to need the toilet. The ‘normal’ toilets were up a flight of stairs and there was a locked disabled toilet by the door. I waddled my way through the crowd and managed to catch a member of staff, I asked her for the key for the disabled toilet, to which she looked me up and down and said wait a minute.
So there I stood for honestly about 2-3 mins, then someone else appeared with the key and went in – later found out this was the manager of the bar. A solid 10 minutes later, now literally bursting for a piss, she came out and I said I need to go in there and she said no – it’s for disabled and staff only. I replied, I am disabled and she let me go in, saying she would stand outside and wait to lock it. There was no lock on the inside – without a key, so I peed as quickly as I could, hoping she was actually there and no-one opened the door.
We exchanged a few words when I got out and she said if I needed to go again to go and find her. Fine. I was pretty upset at the first girl just patching me for no reason but her own small minded judgements.
So X amount of time later I naturally need to pee again, I made my way to the bar and the manager was in the middle serving people and I was at the end. Another member of staff asked what I wanted and I said can I have the key for the toilet on this floor, he said no it’s for disabled people only and I said why do you think I’m asking. He then said if you don’t like it, take it up with the manager, spun round and walked away. Another bar member then had a look for the key, couldn’t find it and shouted to an elderly man with a walking stick to ‘gee that lassie yer key’, he thankfully did and I got to pee.
I gave the guy his key back and went back to my mates, I had been away for ages and I was upset to the point of tears at the monstrosity of an ordeal just because I need to pee. My mate went up to speak to someone who just said to him that I walked away??!!??!!??!! TO PEE WITH YOUR PUNTERS KEY.
By this point I was really struggling, I was crying and ruining my make-up, I was being judged so fucking hard blatantly to my face, the whole town was packing so it wouldn’t have been a case of moving to the next pub along, and if we did I would probs need to go through something similar to get access to an accessable toilet. I didn’t think saying anything would achieve anything but the alternative was to just sit there and sob.
I went over and spoke to the original lady and asked if I could make a complaint. She asked what was wrong and I said on two occasions now, being in this bar I had been denied access to the accessible toilet. Automatically she went on the defence and was saying; they’re so busy, they didn’t know where the keys were, they only have a certain number of keys, the man from earlier is a regular so he gets a key so he can access it when he’s in. All of which is fine, but when I asked, that wasn’t the response I got. I asked to use the disabled toilet, the first girl didn’t even bother coming back and the other guy said no the toilets are upstairs.
We went back and forth and she said she didn’t know what I wanted her to do, she was busy, she told me to go and get her specifically, she had new staff, WHICH I GET. By this point I was just crying AGAIN and I said I didn’t know what she wanted me to do – I just want to be able to access a toilet I am perfectly within my rights to use and not be judged, ignored and left standing in a pub to pish my pants, or be at a point where I’m crying over a basic right and being made to feel like I’m some sort of freak.
I’ve specifically decided not to name the place in this because honestly 70% (other 30% is that was the 4th pub we tried to get into) of the reason we just stayed there was out of resignation to the fact it would probably happen at the next place too. I want to highlight that this is the culture created in a busy, forward thinking, people make Glasgow, city, and it’s absolutely not acceptable.
I don’t doubt if I went back there it would be fine and I’d get the key, but what sort of initiation should I have to go through to be able to get access to a toilet. Literally rejection, judgement and tears were all involved last night. I also understand that people might take the piss (pardon the pun) in using the toilet but how on earth is that my problem. That was one of the managers arguments that people would just use it instead of queuing for the toilet upstairs, to which I replied if they didn’t use the disabled toilet as a stock room then that wouldn’t really be as much of an issue.
The point of this, again, is not to be hateful and waste breath and time on badmouthing the pub or staff. The lady I spoke to did end up listening to me and it was a case of there not really being a resolution there and then, it just shouldn’t have happened. What do they want me to do, get tattooed on my face that I am disabled and have the right to accessible toilets even though I am standing on my own two (poorly working) legs.
Moving forward with this, the plan of action was they keys were given to the bouncer who I had to go find outside every time I needed to pee. Like I’m actually laughing writing this at how ridiculous it is. You can call me emotional, drunk, moaning, whatever. I have now ordered a radar key – which probably wouldn’t even have worked here because it was a key lock inside too, but it’s also not always practical for me to carry a key around, or sometimes even get the lock open.
God forbid someone actually needing help that doesn’t fit your opinion of who is eligible.
It’s almost 2020, this needs to stop.
SPLINT UP, LOOK SHARP 