Gender-neutral toilets at Salford University

[secular111]

My DS attends. Loves the place. Loves his course.

They've just enabled gender-neutral toilets. No notice beforehand. No vote, no discussions.

He reckons a lot of the lads and himself are a bit disturbed by it, but every female student he knows is wholeheartedly behind the 'initiative' (or not willing to say a word in protest).

[SweetGrapes]

Are they proper unisex facilities with enclosed cubicles complete with wash basin, bins, mirror, hand driers or are they just the same old toilets relabelled?

[BlindYeo]

It's interesting to read that the boys are disturbed by it. I am used to the argument that females won't like males in their loos but haven't heard it the other way round 'from the horse's mouth'. I don't blame them for being uncomfortable to be honest. If I was a man, I would be uncomfortable with women wandering in if I was using a urinal. Or are the loos now all separate enclosed cubicles?

The fact is that people who are uncomfortable really need to speak up right now.

I have no idea why the girls are so supportive of the idea. Get your son to show them this news story about a secret camera in a toilet: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-37733768

I believe it happened in a university library toilet after they had been made gender neutral. I predict there's going to be a whole lot more of this the more women's toilets are converted to gender neutral. And that is the problem even with enclosed cubicles: if men have access to the cubicle, that is an opportunity to place a camera that didn't exist before.

[nauticant]

I have no idea why the girls are so supportive of the idea.

It's because they are very afraid of being labelled as transphobic. Especially if this label makes it onto social media. With a bit of life experience and much more confidence, they might realise that avoiding that label shouldn't be such a high priority.

[misscockerspaniel]

According to the website, Salford University aims to have at least one gender neutral toilet in each building, by the end of 2018. They say this means that it won't have a m/f sign on the door and will be available for use by all and sundry. It goes on to say that "all the other toilets will be male, female or accessible. So you can choose the loo which you find most comfortable to use". It is interesting that the men are more concerned than the women but TBH, I am more concerned about the University's use of the horrible cis-word on the website.

[PilarTernera]

It's interesting to read that the boys are disturbed by it. I am used to the argument that females won't like males in their loos but haven't heard it the other way round 'from the horse's mouth'.

It's not just females who don't like it. I had a conversation about this topic at work the other day. (We don't have them, but somewhere nearby does.) The person who was the most uncomfortable with the idea was a middle aged white man.

[Childrenofthestones]

A Swedish feminist political group tried to get a law passed a couple of years ago that men would have to use sit down toilets.
No more urinals as it were.
Looks like a side effect of all this is that they will get their way.

[MarrowWang]

I don't think men nor women will be happy with it. Women will say they are, to avoid abuse and to appear 'nice' and accepting. Blokes are much more likely to actually speak up about how uncomfortable it makes them (overall of course, not each individual person)

[Ereshkigal]

Yes agree men won't be scared to say they don't want it. I think they are the ones we need to win over sadly.