Transgender contributors - is a third space enough for you.

I think there's safety in communal sexed areas for women. A row of unisex cubicle toilets off a corridor could be more dangerous.

The mixed showers sound like a terrible idea.

Basically several rows of cubicles, lockers directly opposite. Sort of square shaped area for 100 or so. Showers are mixed so you have to shower in bathing suit (men, women and children), only gendered rooms are the toilets. A compromise might be to have a male end and female end.

Can I ask a question about the changing villages? How does that work exactly? So, individual lockable cubicles, but how do you access those? Is it off a corridor or is there a main room with the cubicles along the walls or what?

SarahCarer I suspect an often overlooked problem for GNC girls which I can relate to. Just a few weeks ago I was confronted by staff at a holiday park (visiting friends for the night) after using the toilet and a couple of girls fled thinking a man was in the toilet. It took about 2 minutes to explain I am a woman, but I think he just had a problem accepting he got it wrong. But at least I am female in the biological, physical and legal sense so wasn't doing anything wrong.

Sarah "Individual loos would help ... disabled people"
Some disabled people perhaps but it's unlikely to help disabled people who need larger spaces and additional facilities.

Numbers may be the problem. The numbers of transgender people may not warrant the planning and expense. I've heard disabled toilets/changing rooms suggested as an option in the past, but of course thats seen as encroaching on disabled people. Whatever the perfect solution is, I honestly don't know. My local swimming pool have scrapped all communal changing and have a 'village' of lockable cubicles, pretty much floor to ceiling. Some women don't like this setup for reasons I understand though I still go with DC. The numbers of men who would abuse such a setup are probably small, but the very possibility may concern women.

I've asked before what evidence there is and transgender women being abused in mens facilities. Maybe its the fear of being outed as trans more than anything, or 'validation'. Has anyone been brave enough to challenge men in such rooms, who may turn out to be very butch women?

It means excluding men from women's sport as a very basic principle.

In most cases it's just a risk to fair play.

For many fair play means not excluding people.

A. Unisex doesn't work for everything.
B. The population % of trans people is so low that you would spend millions changing everything for it to then never get used.
C. The gov doesn't have the money to change all leisure centres, schools, hospitals etc.
D. The system we have works fine. If you pass, use the changing room you define to. If you don't go in with your biological sex.

Or we could deem all those changes an expensive waste of time. She could always buy testosterone off the internet and then she'd pass as a man and be another invisible ftm who is no bother to anyone

Communal changing rooms at school are awful for everyone involved and the sooner they're gotten rid of the better.

And actually communal changing rooms at school are just bloody awful. Children have to suffer such constant indignity when their bodies are changing and they feel disoriented

My dd is one of those people who is at risk of GID and was very nearly referred to the Tavistock centre. She is GNC. Other kids challenge her in the toilets so often and adults stare at her in the changing rooms at the swimming pool with judgy eyes "you're too old to be in here boy with us women". Most people who post here would just know she is female but out there many people just do not see past clothes and hair. She's autistic so very disinclined to use disabled loos as well because she's afraid of being challenged coming out of one and she doesn't want to be a 'special case' at school. Many autistic people suffer from gender identity issues and I suppose they are high maintenance but for good reason.

Yep. Maybe the "why are you such hard work?" aspect of things will be what eventually puts a stop to all this bollocks.

It boggles my mind too just how high maintenance a few people are.

Many facilities are very poorly designed and the DDA has done a lot to improve things for everyone; not just disabled people. I think the same thing applies here. People were shocked about the potential implications of the DDA when it first came in.

It boggles my mind how we're talking about these grand scale and expensive changes (such as making all toilets and changing rooms unisex) to suit such a minuscule proportion of the population. Then again, I remember that years ago they experimented with making hospital wards unisex, and that had nothing to do with trans. Maybe this is something that was coming anyway.

Individual loos would help a lot, not only transgender people but also GNC people who suffer regular challenges and children at risk of GID. And Dads with their dds and disabled people and people who are very shy around all people and women who are menstruating and dealing with leakage and pregnant women with children who have no way of lifting them to the bloomin basins to wash their hands and all the women crossing their legs because the male architect didn't design enough loos into the building because he didn't care because there's always space in the men's. And men who are at risk from other men.

Ok by intimate spaces I mean the places where we pee, shower and change. I wasn't saying this would be a panacea!

Women are only allowed some degree of consideration if we may be seriously injured, and even then some arsehole is sure to insist that it was our own fault for not staying home in the first place.

EA says you can exclude from sports if there is a risk to health/ safety.

In most cases it's just a risk to fair play.

Make all male spaces unisex.
Keep women’s spaces for women.

Nothing will be enough