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Artist creates amazing inflatable shower curtain to help save water

If you take long showers you’re in for a rude awakening.

Image via elisabethbuecher.com

Singing in the shower.

Are you the type of person who is always waiting on someone in the shower, or are you the one holding everyone up with your epic shower songs? Either way, Elisabeth Buecher has the perfect shower curtain for you. The London-based artist created an inflatable shower curtain that fills soft spikes with air if the shower is on too long. After four minutes of running water, a sensor on the tap triggers an inflator for the spikes, and the bather is immediately reminded that it's time to get out.

Buecher created the installation to raise awareness about water conservation.


"They aim at provoking a debate around water issues and making people more aware of their consumption," the artist said on her website.

Check out the steps from peaceful showering to an alarming wake-up call below.

bathroom, saving water, room design

Getting the hair wet.

Image via elisabethbuecher.com

artist, environmentalist, going green

My other chosen career.

Image via elisabethbuecher.com

Inflatable shower curtain in dramatic action.

Image via elisabethbuecher.com

protection, responsibility, guardianship

The shower curtain has won.

Image via elisabethbuecher.com


This article originally appeared on 09.23.17

On Feb. 22, the Trump administration formally rescinded Obama-era guidelines protecting transgender students from discrimination — but hope for trans students remains.

The Obama administration's now-rescinded letter was merely guidance to school districts as to whether existing law provides anti-discrimination protection on the basis of students' gender identity, something that's likely to be determined this year when the Supreme Court hears 17-year-old transgender student Gavin Grimm's case.

What makes the Trump administration's action harmful is not a matter of whether this changes the rights of trans students (it doesn't or, at least, it shouldn't). It's harmful because it signals to those who want to deny those rights that the administration won't intervene on behalf of trans students.


Gavin Grimm protests outside White House in support of trans students. Photo by Oliver Contreras/Sipa USA via AP.

In response, protests popped up in New York, Washington, and San Francisco to show support for trans students.

Grimm addressed the crowd at a demonstration near the White House, while others made their voices heard outside New York's LGBT landmark Stonewall Inn and San Francisco City Hall. Trans youth, trans adults, and their allies set out with a simple message: Trans rights are human rights.

8-year-old trans child Tal Moskowitz held a sign at the New York rally. AP Photo/Kathy Willens.

Sara Kaplan (L) and her 9-year-old transgender son James attend the San Francisco protest. AP Photo/Jeff Chiu.

New York. Photo by Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images.

New York. Photo by Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images.

A recent estimate from UCLA's Williams Institute shows that around 150,000 youth between the ages of 13 and 17 identify as transgender — roughly 0.7% of the population.

What the Obama White House tried to do with its guidance letter is urge states and school districts to ensure that none of those 150,000 teens face discrimination for no reason other than who they are. Instead of having to deal with this on a case-by-case basis for every school district — which, as Grimm's upcoming Supreme Court case demonstrates, leads to confusion and lawsuits — the federal government tried to clarify that. Trump's move makes those waters as murky as they were before, if not more so.

Photo by Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images.

Photo by Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images.

Photo by Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Some have argued that allowing trans students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity will put other students at risk. This has been thoroughly debunked.

A common refrain from those who oppose trans rights is a fear that cisgender (non-trans) boys will simply "pretend" to be trans in order to infiltrate girls' locker rooms or to dominate girls' sports.

"I wish that somebody would have told me in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in P.E.," former presidential candidate and opponent of transgender rights Mike Huckabee said in a 2015 speech at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. "I’m pretty sure I would have found my feminine side, and said, 'Coach, I think I’d rather shower with the girls today.'"

This simply does not happen.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Photo by Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images.

In 2015, Media Matters spoke with officials in 17 school districts with transgender protections, representing more than 600,000 schools. The total number of problems? Zero.

15 states and the District of Columbia have clear gender identity and sexual orientation protections that apply to schools. The number of times people have pretended to be trans so they can recreate the plot of Porky's and Ladybugs? Zero.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Photo by Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images.

Trans kids just want to exist in a world free from bullying, free from discrimination. That's all.

If there's one thing to take away from the protests that followed Trump's action, it's this: Trans students are loved and they aren't alone in this world.

Want to help out? Here's a helpful list of things you can do.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Kimberly Shappley didn't vote for Barack Obama, but she recalls the exact moment she became grateful for him.

A lifelong conservative Republican, Shappley found herself sobbing with joy when then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch told transgender Americans, "We see you" and "We stand with you" a few days before the White House issued guidelines requiring schools to treat students' gender identity as their sex.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.


"I sobbed with relief, and in my mind, I thought our fight just got shortened and it was going to be easier," Shappley says.

Shappley's daughter Kai started telling her mom that she was a girl at age 3. At first, they tried to discourage her, hiding "girl toys" and even punishing her for insisting, but after meetings with a series of psychologists and psychiatrists, the Texas nursing student and devout evangelical Christian began to accept she had a daughter.

Shappley was always skeptical of the Trump administration's claims that it would support LGBTQ rights, given Mike Pence's record of supporting measures limiting them.

That didn't make the Justice and Education departments' Feb. 22, 2017, announcement rescinding the Obama-era guidelines any easier to stomach, particularly the notion that protections for trans students should be a "states' rights" issue.  

“He just threw my kid under the bus, so to speak," she says. "He just said it’s OK for people to discriminate against her because of where we live. It’s still the United States. I shouldn’t have to decide which town or state is safe enough or welcoming enough or kind enough to let us live there."

It was a crushing blow after losing her family and almost all of her friends when her daughter came out.

Living in a conservative Houston suburb, many of her neighbors still have trouble accepting her daughter is a girl who belongs in the girls' bathroom.

Kai Shappley. Photo by Kimberly Shappley/Facebook.

Still, after months of agonizing, Shappley made the decision to continue to attend her church, where she says she and Kai still get dirty looks. Nevertheless, she believes it's important to continue to engage her community, even if that means changing one mind at a time.

"They still have to see me and they still have to see my daughter, and they still have to see that we love the Lord, that we still study our Bible, that we still pray, that we’re still good people," she says. "And I think that a lot of times the best advocacy is just being there, being present, being seen, and not hiding."

Through online support and advocacy groups, Shappley keeps in close touch with thousands of moms of transgender youth who identify as Christian. She says helping Kai navigate the world has enriched her faith.

Kimberly and Kai. Photo by Kimberly Shappley/Facebook.

"One of the things that I realized for me is that the Bible helps me be a better person," she says. "The Bible doesn’t help me tell other people how to be a better person, and that’s not what it was given to us for. It’s not a weapon for us to hurt other people, or tell them what they’re supposed to do or not do. It’s there so that we read it and we change."

Shappley doesn't expect Trump to come around to her way of thinking, though she hopes he heeds his own advice from the campaign trail.

"He said it didn’t matter to him which bathroom Caitlyn Jenner used at Trump Tower. If that is really true, and that is at the core of what he believes, then he should tell people that: 'This is right, and this is wrong. This is what I see.'"

In the bathroom debate, she sees parallels to the civil rights movement, where public safety concerns were used to mask a broader bigotry.

Winning with opponents in the White House, she believes, will mean fighting in every school district in every town across America.

Photo by Kimberly Shappley/Facebook.

"Call your school board members. Call your superintendent," she advises. "Call them, call them, call them. These are people that are elected, so just continuing to call them and let them hear. Whether they agree or not isn’t even the point. So I would encourage everyone who votes, especially, to call the school board members where you live. Call your superintendent that you elected."

Fighting on Kai's behalf and encouraging others to do so, she explains, is her duty a parent and a Christian.

"Is it challenging? Yes. Is it discouraging? Yes. But I can’t just stop because right now my child is 6 and I’m fighting for her now so that when she’s 13 or 20 or 50 or 75 years old that hopefully I’ve done enough, I’ve been loud enough, I’ve been vocal enough that there’s been change. Because as her mom, I won’t always be there for her."

For Shappley herself, that means continuing to show up.

Kimberly (rear center), Kai (front center), and family. Photo by Eric Edward Schell.

"We want people to see that we’re just people. We’re a family. We’re crazy, and our house is sometimes messy. It’s crazy to think that we have to show people that we’re human."

More

Obama quietly signed a bill for new parents everywhere when we weren't looking.

This bill is helping to change antiquated gender norms within families.

If you’ve ever had to change a child’s diaper in a public bathroom, you know it can be a nightmare if the right equipment isn’t there.

But the Bathrooms Accessible in Every Situation (BABIES) Act is a step toward changing that.  

The BABIES Act, quietly signed by President Barack Obama in October 2016, will expand the number of baby changing stations in all publicly accessible federal buildings. This means that buildings like post offices, Social Security offices, and courthouses will have at least one baby changing station on each floor, and they will be in both men and women’s bathrooms.


The bill received mostly bipartisan support, too, a welcome form of relief during such a partisan time.

Photo by Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images.

The act is "important to ensure that [bathrooms] are as open, as accessible, and as family-friendly as possible," David N. Cicilline, the Democratic congressman who sponsored the bill wrote in his press release.      

Aside from added convenience, this new bill is also a step toward breaking down a notorious form of sexism.  

Historically speaking, changing tables have more commonly been in women’s bathrooms, further perpetuating the stereotype that women should be responsible for child care outside of the household.

But by putting changing tables in men's bathrooms, too, we can break down the idea that women should always be the primary caretakers for children.  

In 2015, actor Ashton Kutcher launched this discussion publicly by asking stores to make changing stations available for men and women.

His Change.org petition called out the lack of changing tables in mens bathrooms as "gender stereotyping."        

"This assumption" he said, "is gender stereotyping and companies should be supporting all parents that shop at their stores equally — no matter their gender."

Kutcher's simple act led Democratic Sen. Brad Hoylman to launch a bill in 2015 that would make changing tables required in all public restrooms in New York — such as restaurants and theaters — regardless of gender.

While the particular bill is still in committee for the city of New York, Obama's BABIES Act will help change bathrooms in federal buildings all over the U.S. This is good news because it's clear that politicians are realizing that not making family needs accessible to all is a form of gender discrimination.        

The act is also a way of breaking down hypermasculinity, too.  

Hypermasculinty, a term that expresses the exaggeration of stereotypical male behavior such as physical strength, stoicism, and aggression, is often used to put men in a box, ultimately negatively affecting them and those around them.  

Photo via iStock.

When we push the antiquated ideas that women work with the children and men serve as babysitters, we add unnecessary pressure to moms, but we also further perpetuate the idea that being a caring and attentive father somehow makes someone less of a man — an idea that couldn't be further from the truth.          

And this isn't just important for heterosexual couples, either.

Gender norms also plague same-sex relationships. Male same-sex couples, often under pressure to follow archaic masculine or feminine roles, will now have safer and more accessible options for taking care of their little ones in public.    

The bill, which was originally introduced in April, is also a pleasant reminder that our government can in fact work for us when we put partisanship aside and work to improve the lives of citizens around us.    

"This is how government should work to make commonsense reforms that make life easier for the people we serve," Cicilline said.