Two time Red Sox World Series Champion Curt Schilling was fired by ESPN for online comments concerning the subject of public transgender bathroom usage. For anyone that went to Fenway in the 80's, you'll remember how little the issue of gender was when using the facilities.

“A man is a man no matter what they call themselves,” Schilling wrote. “I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.” (From The Washington Post)

It's very ironic that Curt Schilling began his professional baseball career with the Sox in the exact same time frame that I discovered Fenway's progressive position on gender equality bathrooms, The 1980's . He never made it to Fenway as he was traded to Baltimore in 1988 as a minor leaguer. He certainly never used the public restrooms there at that time.

The urinals were more like troughs. Big public open sinks that were like urinating in a bathtub. No privacy whatsoever.

The women's room was always overcrowded and the lines stretched for miles. Women who needed to use the restroom badly enough would walk into the men's room to utilize the open stalls.

This was 30 years ago. There were 81 home games every season and I never once heard of anything lurid happening or read anything about gender and bathrooms until this North Carolina law.

Who would have thought that the lavoratories at Yawkey Way would be so ahead of their time? Maybe if the Red Sox never traded Schill in the first place he would have gained this perspective and would still be employed by ESPN? The world may never know.

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