Schools face having single sex and 'gender neutral' lavatories

[JanieAllen]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/schools-face-having-single-sex-and-gender-neutral-lavatories-frlr0xtc9

archive here archive.ph/XSdnX

Remember Gender Neutral = Mixed Sex

It’ll be interesting to see who uses which toilet. “Gender neutral” could just mean individual rooms that anyone can use, as we currently see for disabled toilets.

We have single sex and a ‘gender neutral’ single use toilet in my school for the staff.

as long as the gender neutral loos aren’t taken out of the girls facilities

I think if you have kids in English and Welsh schools monitor this closely

oh and by golly yes the girls will end up with MUCH fewer loos this has happened in every other public buildin

Gender neutral = mixed sex = safeguarding by the wayside.

This must not happen.

Depending on how this is implemented it could be a good solution, rows of single sex cubicles and a couple of individual mixed-sex toilets in individual rooms.

There’s a lot of other direction in that guidance which is absolutely dreadful. It discusses the Cass Review and suggests “Some schools will wish to take a more cautious approach to social transition than previously in light of the Cass Review Interim Report findings and to look at other options for supporting pupils, pending further advice from the Cass Review, the DfE and/or EHRC.”

Then it goes on to make abundantly clear that informing parents, while desirable, is ultimately optional and where there is disagreement (or where the parents are unaware), school staff should make the determination as to whether or not a child is Gillick competent wrt social transition.

This isn’t appropriate advice at all and undermines the recent NHSE proposed services specs and their very cautious approach to social transition.

oh, and the CST has now removed the guidance from public view on their website and it’s now behind a paywall.

(Or more accurately, it’s a member’s only access now)

I think this could be a positive thing.

Single sex facilities will still be available. I suspect the gender neutral loos will end up being little used, which will show the lack of demand. It wouldn't be good though if facilities for girls are sacrificed to provide gender neutral facilities.

You do realise that there are gender neutral toilets everywhere don't you?
Trains, planes, many small cafes, museums to name a few.
And amazingly, people use them without panic or incident.
The problem here is the nastiness of the people making nasty assumptions.

The high school I work has only mixed gender toilets!

Most toilets are gender neutral

Some toilets are for either sex but single sex toilets are the most common

This is because
In many environments single sex toilets are needed

anyone who thinks it's a nasty assumption that teenage girls won't want to wash a blood stained hand in front of teenage boys is at best naive

Nasty assumptions about what?

Yes there are gender neutral toilets in those places - one single room with washing facilities inside, to be used by one person at a time unlike the vast majority of single sex toilet facilities that are cubicles with the washing facilities outside of the cubicles. Your argument is as lame as the well, your toilets at home are gender neutral.

Perhaps you would be good enough to tell us all where the women who cannot used mixed sex facilities should go? Or do you just not give a stuff about them?

Mixed sex toilets are not a good, safe or positive thing. Minors are minors for a reason, adults have safeguarding responsibilities towards them for a reason. Adults shouldn't be removing children from normal and established safeguarding routes ever.

If conflating toilets in schools, workplaces and public places with going to the loo at home is the best argument you have, you've no business designing policy that impacts other people and ends up with our rights, privacy and decency undermined.

That is illegal

This is what is needed.

What must be avoided is a situation where girls are in a toilet washroom and men can come in and the girls aren’t allowed to object. Has been shown over and over again that this facilitates sexual assault, and even rape as in USA, but also its not ok to have to wash period blood off your hands in front of a man / have a teenage boy sniggering on the other side of cubicle door as your sanitary towel plastic rustles while unwrapping.

In planes yes, and in those ‘gender neutral’ loos the toilet stinks of male urine and has male urine all over the seat, so women are forced to stand in and wipe up the urine of a male stranger before being able to sit down. Just because it happens doesn’t mean it is ok.

“Without incident”?! Go educate yourself on the number of girls who’ve been raped and assaulted in mixed sex loos.

The toilet provision on trains and planes is gender neutral / unisex, I agree.
BUT - when schools talk of 'gender neutral' toilets what they actually mean is a change of signage on the female provision, making it mixed sex as opposed to the single occupant train / plane /accessible loos.

It is not a 'nasty assumption' to not want males in female single sex spaces - and decent men wouldn't dream of imposing themselves in this way.

Oh yes these are all gender neutral… and usual disgusting, aren’t they?
Having mostly single sex facilities + a few gender neutral cubicles is the solution, I don’t see the downside. It will also reflect the fact that people wanting to use gender neutral specifically is quote small vs number of people happy to use the facilities according to their biological sex.

Strangely, the little cafe I go to has three separate toilets - single occupancy enc enclosed rooms with washing facilities inside and they are designated thus:

Female
Male
Disabled

So, funnily enough, the women all use the one designated female, the men all use the one designated male and disabled of either sex use the disabled one. It's amazing really how each sex automatically goes into the one with sign on the door that matches their sex, mind blowing really.

Females losing a safe communal space is not inclusive or neutral. I have heard reports that communal school toilets, single-sex or otherwise, can facilitate bullying but the girls toilets used to be a place to get away from boys AND also a place to be with girls. I fear the choice between male company or isolation is not as positive.

Plus, if you run in the girls communal toilets, there's usually someone there. You can't run away and get help in a single cubicle and someone waiting outside for the occupant to leave might not attract the same interest/suspicion.

Gender neutral toilets are not normally disgusting

Sex neutral
Ones are