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Non-binary colleague using disabled toilet

1000 replies

DefendingPan · 22/12/2024 10:14

Where I work there’s employee male and female toilets, customer male and female toilets and one customer disabled toilet.

This colleague is non-binary, is not disabled, and uses the disabled toilet/ baby change (with their own Radar key) because they “don’t feel comfortable) using either the male or female toilets.

I mentioned to my boss that I didn’t think this was appropriate and got accused of transphobia and threatened with discipline. I was made to feel like I was being offensive and discriminatory for bringing it up.

We have many elderly customers and many young families who all also need to use it.

Was I being unreasonable?

OP posts:
WarmingClothesontheRadiator · 22/12/2024 18:02

Nobody wakes up and decide to be trans, who would ever choose to have a life of presecution that can end with them being beaten or even murdered at some point?

It will come as a great relief to you to know that trans people are the safest demographic worldwide when it comes to being murdered. There are more trans murderers than there are trans people murdered.

Dideon · 22/12/2024 17:59

IHaveNeverLivedintheCastle · 22/12/2024 17:38

Urinary and bowel problems aren't visible. The OP has no way of knowing this person isn't affected by something of that nature.

Ah stop clutching at straws!

viques · 22/12/2024 17:59

Bearsinmotion · 22/12/2024 12:42

I think it's interesting that it's very rare to see gender specific toilets for people with disabilities. Non binary disabled people do exist (in as much as any non binary people exist), but so do male and female people with disabilities but that isn't important when it comes to designing toilets, we're all just bundled in together...

Perhaps that’s because the need for a toilet adapted to someone with a disability takes precedence over non binary woo.

WarmingClothesontheRadiator · 22/12/2024 17:57

Grammarnut · 22/12/2024 17:11

Genelly I am not. I think baby changing facilities should be in both male and female toilets, and leave the disabled toilet to the disabled.

Baby change facilities need to be in male, female and disabled toilets. There are disabled parents and children with disabilities who need the extra space to be changed.

Cosyblankets · 22/12/2024 17:57

ThatRareUmberJoker · 22/12/2024 17:41

It is if a customer desperately needs to use the disabled loo.

As far as i can see this hasn't presented a problem so far.
If OP had come on to say a disabled customer had been prevented from using the toilet because this person was in there then maybe that would be fair enough. But that doesn't appear to be the case.

WarmingClothesontheRadiator · 22/12/2024 17:56

Cosyblankets · 22/12/2024 17:00

This is none of your business

OP is an employee, not a private individual, so that makes it her business.

Tsama · 22/12/2024 17:54

@Grammarnut
Sexual orientation is not a choice.

According to many people it is lol

Being trans/non-binary may be, unless it's the thing we are not allowed to mention on MN.

Nobody wakes up and decide to be trans, who would ever choose to have a life of presecution that can end with them being beaten or even murdered at some point?

People who think someone "chooses" to be trans for attention literally don't understand how being trans is, because vast majority of trans don't want attention to themselves, they get attention because majority goes through transition late in life and inevitably can't pass as the opposite sex most of the time, which gives them a life of persecution, humilation, and suffering.

People don't choose to be trans because it's somehow "fun" or "trendy", they're like that due to gender dysphoria and some other things.

Just like with gays many in the past tried to "cure" them and make them live as their birth sex, didn't work just like it didn't work with curing gays, so the approach was changed

Trouble is, if you can ID as non-binary, there must be a binary to be 'non'. So sex is binary, yes?

Sex is binary, gender isn't, been many years that more and more people who work with biology, psychology and so on push the concept that sex and gender are two separate things.

There's literally studies about it, the idea of gender being separate from sex isn't even new, it existed for decades now, only thing that happened is that understanding of it advanced and changed.

WarmingClothesontheRadiator · 22/12/2024 17:53

IHaveNeverLivedintheCastle · 22/12/2024 16:28

There are no disabled staff members so everyone uses both toilets.

You know it would be really useful if posters could say what they think "disabled" means and what level of disability justifies using the accessible toilet.

You probably have knowledge whether or nor your work colleagues have conditions which meet the definition in Section 6 of The Equality Act 2010 , or whilst not meeting that level, still have the need, even if only occasionally, to use the accessible facilities.

If their condition means they are physically unable to use a conventional toilet, then they are entitled to use a disabled toilet. This might be because they need the space to maneauvre a chair or for a carer, the higher toilet, rails, a private sink to clear themselves or wash equipment, large nappy bin, or it could be the location of the disabled toilet - they can’t manage stairs to the other toilets, or for reasons of urgency for those with incontinence.

In terms of the statutory definition; if you need access to disabled toilets, for the above reasons, in order to leave your home then you meet the definition for disabled as far as disabled toilet provision is concerned, whether you identify as disabled or not.

The duty to apply ‘reasonable adjustment’ only applies to disability NOT to gender identities.

Grammarnut · 22/12/2024 17:44

Tsama · 22/12/2024 13:45

@ueberlin2030
Being gay isn't a choice.
Labelling yourself non-binary most definitely is a choice.

And a lot of people still says otherwise.

@ThatRareUmberJoker
You're a woman aren't you no man would come out with that.

And my sex / gender has relevance how exactly?

@WarmingClothesontheRadiator
People like Stonewall, Pride etc you mean?

No, I mean people who think eventually someone "grows out" of being gay cause it's just a phase, or cause that they're just seeking attention, that kind of people, a lot of them still exist today.

And then there's the one who think you can "cure" gays, or pray it away.

Sexual orientation is not a choice. Being trans/non-binary may be, unless it's the thing we are not allowed to mention on MN. Trouble is, if you can ID as non-binary, there must be a binary to be 'non'. So sex is binary, yes?

ThatRareUmberJoker · 22/12/2024 17:44

IHaveNeverLivedintheCastle · 22/12/2024 17:38

Urinary and bowel problems aren't visible. The OP has no way of knowing this person isn't affected by something of that nature.

She works with him so would know something was wrong by now. She knows they are non binary. They need to use another toilet and be considerate.

ThatRareUmberJoker · 22/12/2024 17:41

Cosyblankets · 22/12/2024 17:00

This is none of your business

It is if a customer desperately needs to use the disabled loo.

IHaveNeverLivedintheCastle · 22/12/2024 17:38

Grammarnut · 22/12/2024 17:16

I was born with a cleft soft palette. It's not a visible condition. You won't notice it at all if I speak, either. My late DH was 70% deaf and had glaucoma - virtually blind on one side. That's also invisible.
They are disabilities. However, neither requires access to a disabled toilet - which should be left entirely for those who do need one. And imaginary identities really don't cut the mustard there!

Urinary and bowel problems aren't visible. The OP has no way of knowing this person isn't affected by something of that nature.

Dideon · 22/12/2024 17:34

HocusFord · 22/12/2024 14:03

There’s no indication it’s a problem at all for this colleague to use the loo. If they are having sufficiently frequent loo trips that it’s preventing customers being able to use the loo then that suggests they have a disability themselves in any event. If they’re using it at the normal rate then I don’t see how it’s causing an issue, but if so OP’s employer can address it by removing the gendered signs from the individual loos.

I have an invisible disability so I know very well how important disabled loos are, and I just don’t see how this is an issue at all.

You seem to be easy with the word disability!

ChristmasKelpie · 22/12/2024 17:27

Didshejustsaythatoutloud · 22/12/2024 13:58

🙄

One look between your legs tells you exactly what you are. And being Trans does not make you disabled.

Grammarnut · 22/12/2024 17:16

IHaveNeverLivedintheCastle · 22/12/2024 16:20

And you still don't understand that
(a) they might not wish to reveal their medical condition to the OP
and (b) not all conditions which justify the use of the accessible toilet meet the definition of "disability". That's the statutory definition - not your definition

I was born with a cleft soft palette. It's not a visible condition. You won't notice it at all if I speak, either. My late DH was 70% deaf and had glaucoma - virtually blind on one side. That's also invisible.
They are disabilities. However, neither requires access to a disabled toilet - which should be left entirely for those who do need one. And imaginary identities really don't cut the mustard there!

Dideon · 22/12/2024 17:16

Bromptotoo · 22/12/2024 10:35

Not all disabilities are visible.

If the non binary person has anxieties about using gendered toilets, whether for their birth sex or the other, that to me, and I think in law, would be a disability.

What a load of rubbish.

Grammarnut · 22/12/2024 17:11

rainydaysandrainbows · 22/12/2024 10:22

Why are you ok with young families who on the face of it may have no disabilities using the disabled toilet? Also if it's where baby changing facilities are, why doesn't your work have these in other toilets?

Genelly I am not. I think baby changing facilities should be in both male and female toilets, and leave the disabled toilet to the disabled.

Grammarnut · 22/12/2024 17:09

TheBobbysAreSurly · 22/12/2024 15:43

See, l'm as TERFy as they come but as there is no gender neutral option this seems like a sensible thing for your colleague to do. What's your problem with it?

That it occupies the disabled toilet. A gender neutral option would be better (not that that will go down well the the TRAs).

Cosyblankets · 22/12/2024 17:00

This is none of your business

IHaveNeverLivedintheCastle · 22/12/2024 16:58

verysmellyjelly · 22/12/2024 16:29

@IHaveNeverLivedintheCastle Not everyone subscribes to your notion that disability is something that is shameful and must be hidden. Some people are comfortable being more open about it, for a start, and some people have no choice about others knowing.

Just stop it now. You are inventing things I've never said. I don't know to what purpose or point, but stop making things up.

IHaveNeverLivedintheCastle · 22/12/2024 16:55

verysmellyjelly · 22/12/2024 16:22

@IHaveNeverLivedintheCastle If someone has the right to use the disabled toilet then yes, they are disabled. You may not agree with that which is fine, I don't argue with your personal definitions. But it's not up to you as much as you'd like it to be.

You have posted post after post arguing about this. There is a statutory definition of disability which I do not meet. The "personal defintion" is yours.

Sirzy · 22/12/2024 16:46

I could understand the anxiety argument more if it wasn’t for the fact that in the situation the OP describes the non disabled toilets are self contained so not the mixed sinks area issue

cariadlet · 22/12/2024 16:43

Bromptotoo · 22/12/2024 16:33

If you literally cannot pee in a gendered toilet due to anxiety that's a real condition affecting somebody's day to day life.

Contempt for those who don't buy GC ideology makes no difference to that.

I have sympathy for people who have gender dysphoria and believe that they're born in the wrong body. It's a genuine mental health condition and must be very distressing. That doesn't mean that I would affirm their delusion.

I have no time for people who call themselves NB. Nobody has ever managed to explain it without resorting to regressive gender stereotypes.

If someone calls themselves NB and is too anxious too pee if they see a sign on a toilet that they don't like, then they need to grow up a bit.

There are people with genuine problems - including disabled people whose spaces you are happy to give away - and these narcissists need to get a grip.

nellythe · 22/12/2024 16:43

Bromptotoo · 22/12/2024 16:30

@verysmellyjelly FFS if the anxiety is disabling then they're disabled.

How difficult is that to grasp?

Your second para is offensive.

I can’t explain how much your statement would be offensive to my physically disabled mother. She would be offended that you think someone’s thoughts or anxieties trump her need to use facilities designed for her.

You being ‘offended’ doesn’t make you correct. It’s offensive to some that you feel disabled bathrooms shouldn’t be protected for the very people they are intended for.

Bromptotoo · 22/12/2024 16:42

visitbreakfast · 22/12/2024 16:34

OP said 'does not feel comfortable' not has crippling and disabling anxiety.

Whatever.

I'm still with the colleague.

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