edit: I am a man and the only man in this scenario
This happened some time ago. I was driving and stopped on a gas station. probably for coffee and had to go pee. I saw a long queue of around fifteen to twenty exclusively 30-something girls, definitely bit older than me. They probably were a sports team, since there was a hired couch bus waiting outside and they were mostly wearing sweats. There were separate stalls for men and women (one each), so I went for the men’s room. It turned out locked, so I stood just outside it. One of the girls in the queue said that the back of the queue is “back there”. I replied “sure, but I’m going to the men’s room”, understandably assuming they were queueing for the ladies room. To which she said “yeah but there’s one queue for both”. I am familiar with the concept of shared queues, but mostly from supermarkets or post office, where you would queue for several checkouts and just go to the first one that is free. Never encountered shared queues for gender-separated toilets, so I said “but the toilets are separate, I’m going to the men’s room and you can queue for the ladies room” and simply went in without any more protest from them when the men’s room emptied (and it was another girl in there).
Were I the asshole?
NTAH. If they had told you they were using the men’s stall as well, then maybe. It sounds like they didn’t do a good job at explaining the situation.
to be fair I did understand the situation when she said there’s shared queue, but just assumed since the stall I wanted to go to was designated for men, then me going in before them would be in accordance to generally accepted social cohabitation rules. similarly, disabled parking spots by law should always be left available for disabled drivers, but it’s commonly accepted that everyone can leave their car there AS LONG AS they will be able to free the spot the very moment a disabled person drives up to it (so preferably without even leaving the vehicle)
I get your reasoning, however it should be said that bathroom planning for women has long been sexist/ignorant - usually there are way too few stalls for women. Since they can’t use urinals, e.g., they just need more than men. There are studies that have shown that
Oh yeah, that I have no doubt about. I don’t quite see how this applies to my particular situation though