It turns out that threat of a lawsuit a couple months ago over the new Dolores Park pissoir from one conservative, anti-LGBT group, the Pacific Justice Center, has turned into a reality, and the group is now suing the city on behalf of the San Francisco Chinese Christian Union as well as four other individuals, including one neighbor across Church Street. As NBC Bay Area reports, via this sarcastic release from the City Attorney's office titled "Ain't That a Pissoir?!", the complaint says that the open-air urinal is an illegal public nuisance and is "indecent,” “offensive to the senses,” “grossly unseemly,” and “offensive to manners and morals.”
Furthermore, that neighbor, Patrick Sullivan, says he can see it from his kitchen window and that it's impacting his the value of his property but that's just disingenuous because now at least men are pissing with their backs to Sullivan's window, instead of facing him in the bushes on the same side of the Muni tracks, or on his front stoop, as they have been on busy sunny days for the last decade.
The City Attorney's office refers to the pissoir as "similar to streetscape fixtures that many European cities have featured since the 19th Century," and spokesman Matt Dorsey quips, "If I had to predict the top 100 things in Dolores Park likely to offend these plaintiffs, I wouldn’t have guessed that this would make the cut."
The lawsuit also tries to make a separate argument that the pissoir is illegal because it isn't accessible to women or persons with disabilities, and then there's some separate complaint about the plumbing code.
As noted earlier, the Pacific Justice Center has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an "active anti-LGBT group," and it appears they found the Chinese Christian Union as an adequate local foil for their agenda, which in this case has to do with a urinal that can be enjoyed by gay and straight people alike.
In other news, the Chronicle appears to have just learned the term "pissoir" via this legal complaint as opposed to the year of coverage over the proposed and then constructed urinal and proclaims the French term "truly delightful."
And of course C.W. Nevius has chimed in too, in this awkwardly double-entendre-filled column about the lawsuit (e.g. "Let’s put it this way: I assumed the position, but I didn’t free Willy."). And only understanding the vagaries of French pronunciation, he notes, "By the way, and this was news to me, it is pronounced piss-WAH, not piss-SOIR." It's actually somewhere in between those two if we're going to get all Parisian about this, Chuck, but no biggie.
Previously: Anti-Gay Group Threatens Lawsuit Over Outdoor Urinal At Dolores Park