Do we have a right to single-sex toilets?

[Sausagenbacon]

I believe that all new public buildings have to provide (but am prepared to be corrected). But if a public building I use changes it's womans toilet to a mixed one, can part of my complaint be that I'm entitled to a single-sex toilet?

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.

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.

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.

Thank you all for your responses. FWIW it's a church I attend

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.

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.

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?

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