Gender-specific toilets to be required in non-residential buildings in England

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Gender-specific toilets to be required in non-residential buildings in England

Ministers say move will combat growing concerns about ‘privacy and dignity’ in gender-neutral facilities

Mabel Banfield-Nwachi
Mon 6 May 2024 00.08 BST
Last modified on Mon 6 May 2024 00.26 BST

New restaurants, offices, schools and hospitals in England will be required to have separate male and female toilets, in a move ministers say will combat growing concerns about “privacy and dignity” in gender-neutral facilities.

The law will mean newly built non-residential buildings require separate facilities, and cannot solely have “universal” lavatories.

According to ministers, 81% agreed with the intention for separate single-sex toilet facilities in a consultation on the proposals, while 82% also agreed with the intention to provide “universal” toilets – a self-contained, and a fully enclosed toilet room with a wash hand basin for individual use – where space allows.

The government said the new requirements will mean people of all genders have access to facilities, either through a separate single-gender space or a “universal” toilet.

However, the policy has been criticised as being transphobic ...

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/06/gender-specific-toilets-to-be-required-in-non-residential-buildings-in-england

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. Here's my thoughts.

Men bathrooms have urinals and stalls.
Female bathrooms have stalls.
If you look like a male, use a stall. If you look like a female, use a stall. What am I missing here? Are gender genitalia checks required to use a bathroom now? And who checks?

[Marcuse]

7. Anti trans laws would force you to use the designated bathroom consistent with your sex at birth.

[Doodley]

2. How is it transphobic?

[Eugene]

4. "the move will help combat the rise of gender-neutral toilet spaces, which she said 'deny...

The article goes on to say that, in schools, trans and non-binary students
must be segregated from the binary bathrooms.

It's all in the context.

[Doodley]

5. I read that and still don't understand. Suppose I am trans. What is my problem?

[RainCaster]

3. UK loos are far more private.

Their walls go floor to ceiling, doors too. Much more civilized.
Really, given that, it doesn't matter what your sex is. It be private in the privy.

[Doodley]

6. I agree. Good point. Some of the stalls in America, you could literally have somebody look over the top or underneath,

ot the gaps between the panels are sometimes like an inch wide. I'm a very private person and do not like it! I lived in UK most my life and it was a shock when I first came to America.