I came across a survey on X (formerly known as Twitter) yesterday which appeared to have been sparked by the gender debate taking place in the UK Parliament: “Should Labour’s MP Eddie Izzard, who could be an MP very soon and is fully intact with his male parts, (that wasn’t the phraseology used but I need to ensure that Cleanzine doesn’t end up in your junk folder!) be allowed in women-only toilets and changing rooms? I took a screenshot of the 3,007 responses: “Yes” 2.2% and “No” 97.8%. I’ve checked the post again this morning but as I’ve already cast my vote I can’t access any updates. What’s the betting though that over the five days remaining before the survey ends, the results don’t fluctuate much? What was also interesting about the post were the comments that followed it. People feel incredibly strongly about who should be allowed to use which toilets and why – and this doesn’t surprise me.
Our public toilets have been shutting down in their thousands over my three decades in the industry and I daresay it was happening long before then, too. Back in the day it was down to costs, vandalism, theft of the disposables, drug use, cottaging, staff shortages for upkeep and the like and of course these issues haven’t gone away. Now we have the problem of deciding who can use the toilets – and it’s huge. Service providers already have a lot to deal with and they also have a duty of care to keep users safe. Try balancing that against potential accusations of discrimination along with the potential for an ‘open house’ design to lead to physical attacks on women – or attacks on men dressed as women who are having to use ‘the gents’ and we have a recipe for disaster. We desperately need more public toilets rather than fewer and if we carry on creating hoops through which service providers have to jump, I fear that more and more of our facilities will end up closing.
I, personally wouldn’t use public toilets that are open to use by men in all their many new forms. And that’s speaking as someone who has many longstanding gay maIe friends along with a few who are transgender and one who’s gone through a full transition. So how about those women with a more sheltered upbringing than I’ve had? And how about those who are born male but would now feel uncomfortable and unsafe having to use the male facilities? Is the answer to have three options, or is that going to be prohibitively expensive? Clearly decisions need to be made and I must say I’m pleased I’m not the one having to make them! What are your thoughts on this? Is there an easy solution that's somehow been missed?