Do we have a right to single-sex toilets?

Do you leave your front door open and share your toilet with random strangers?

You do realise that there are many thousands of women and girls whose bathrooms and toilets at home aren't safe from preditory or violent men, don't you?

Public buildings come in different sizes so there is no single answer. A coffee shop with two toilets self contained on a corridor both being unisex suitable for wheelchairs and a baby change makes sense whereas a large sports stadium needs lots of facilities so a range of solutions makes lots of sense including single sex, gender neutral, family sized, basic disabled and full changing places facilities.

I share my bathroom at home with my own teenage boys.

I have never felt the need to hide myself in there because I feel threatened by them.

I've lost count of how many times I've had to 'hide' in the women's loos because of creepy men.

Do you think that is in anyway clever or amusing?

It's a tired and boring supposed gotcha that makes anyone uttering it seem utterly bobbins.

Technically, because it hasn't been tested in a court yet, your employer simply has to state that female facilities will be female only as per EA2010 exemptions.

They could also look at real, safe provision of individual cubicles.

But it is down to them to choose to do either of them. Otherwise the law presumes acceptance of transwomen in female facilities. As was explained so clearly in the women's equality hearing yesterday.

There are stringent regulations around this for public buildings, complete with formulas to calculate how many male and female toilets must be provided.

This differs from venue to venue, depending on size and type, but in general, there is usually a requirement to provide male and female toilets at a ratio of 1 to 2.

That's because women need longer, have more reasons to need a sanitary facility and are disproportionately the sex with caring responsibilities for both children and the elderly who need help and/or supervision when using the toilet.

So, anytime you see a venue has provided only mixed-sex toilets, they are extremely likely to be underproviding women unless they are providing more toilets overall than they need to as per the formula applicable to them. This is indirect sex discrimination.

As is also the case where only the women's toilets have been made mixed-sex, which leads to even more underprovision of toilets.

Please remember that unisex and mixed-sex facilities are not the same - the former are for the use of one person at a time, the latter are for the use of several people at a time. It is the latter that are the problem.

Unless your house has multiple toilets in the same room, then they are single-sex as only one person can use them at a time.

The issue with unisex toilets is whether they are self-contained or not. If you have a space where toilets are in cubicles and there is a shared space for the sinks then that is where the problem is.

Stupid comment alert!

@Icanflyhigh you invite people into your home, only the people in your home can use your toilet. You know these people, yo7 have enough trust in them to allow them into your home.

In a public toilet, you don't know the people sharing the facility with you, you have not invited them to share the facility with you.

Can you see that these are 2 completely different scenarios?

It's like saying, you can try on whatever clothes you like in a clothes shop so how come you don't let anyone wander in off the streets, walk into your bedroom and try on the contents of your wardrobe.

I see it as two separate issues: firstly do unisex toilets discriminate against women (maybe) and secondly should trans people use the toilet that relates to their sex or their gender (complicated)

Thoughts on unisex toilets

1. not an issue if all toilets are unisex and are there own little rooms with the sink and bin in. If you work somewhere where there is just one loo because it’s a small office then clearly it’s unisex and that’s not an issue, . If somewhere had two toilets both in separate own rooms with sinks and bins and previously one was labels female and one male, and now both were labelled unisex I wouldn’t care and would probably be happy because there would be less chance I would have to wait when I need to use the loo.
2. if there were originally male and female toilets But if only the women’s toilet is renamed unisex so there are now male and unisex toilets that would appear clear discrimination as there is now more provison for men than women
3. If both male and female toilets are now renamed unisex but are not separate individual single toilet rooms with bins (I.e former men’s has a urinal) then that is I think discrimination against the women who won’t then be able to use that toilet (and probably also discrimination against the men who now might be walked in on by a woman)
4. if the toilets are big rooms with lots of space and are also had been used as changing rooms/breastfeeding spaces it would be interesting to know if there was now a need to provide separate single sexed provision for that?

this seems separate to the issue of trans- women using the female facilities (and trans-men using the male ones).

Personally I see toilets as relating to the use of of ones excretory organs and to menstruation and so for this it really does come down to what is in your pants not your feelings.

As humans in the vast majority of us come with one of two different sets of organs and toilet facilities are designed with this in mind (urinals for persons with penises, sit down toilets for people without penises and sanitary bins for people with womb and ovaries) people should use the facilities that match their organs which means in the real world generally men use the gents and women the ladies.

If for some reason a man had no penis (say something awful like penile cancer or an accident) and the male toilet had no sit down toilet it would be perfectly acceptable imo for him to use the “female” facilities as he does not have the physical ability to use the urinal, and by this logic I therefore have to accept that post op trans-women can use the ladies as well but pre op they have no business being in there.

id sidestep the “female/male/unisex” issue and label them as “place of urination for people with a penis” and “place of menstrual provision and urination for people without a penis” and so not give a fig whatever gender or sex the users think they are.

I see we can add ICanFly house to the list of people willing to let anyone in to go to the loo

there's little case law on this because as we’ve pointed many times, until 5 minutes ago everyone knew what a woman was and blokes wandering into womens toilets woukd have been challenged

thanks to stonewall and their “getting ahead of the law” (or lying as we usually call it) training, companies, organisations & service providers across the country have been told that gender identity is a protected characteristic (it’s not) and ppl can use the toilets that best aligns with their ‘gender’

the damage they’ve done to womens rights is incalculable

Oh yeah. And a right to dignity. Why should any woman tolerate blokes, in dresses or otherwise, hanging around as tourists when they are dealing with their periods, washing out a cup say?

Do people wander around at home naked or semi naked to go to the loo in your home?

The issues:

• being attacked when in the communal hand washing area.
• being forced into a stall which is then locked behind you
• having cameras put under doors i.e. voyeurism

Lock the flipping door. I genuinely don't see the issue.

What a facile question.

Do you have a sign outside your house that says ‘Public Convenience’ so that anyone can wander in and use your toilet?

Why do people make this idiotic argument everytime women discuss single sex toilets?

🙄🙄😵‍💫🤡

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‘Hotel rooms have different occupants every night so you should totally let Arthur from the pub darts team sleep in your bed whenever you stay over at your boyfriends place’

How many total strangers do you let use your lavatory each day then?

The what do you do at home thing is irrelevant as you choose who you live with (mostly) but have no choice who you are sharing a public toilet with. Possibly it could be a sex offender and the rate of sex offending does not change even if a man declares himself Chelsea. Given that only 1% of rapists are ever convicted Chelsea could use access to single sex spaces to rape women. So I don’t want to share a space with Chelsea thanks.

This isn't the same thing and you know it!

Do you lock your door at night or do you invite strangers in off the street to use your home?