Gender neutral toilets question

[Iriseee]

Do gender neutral toilets still need to be ceiling to floor? Just at a venue that has suddenly changed the ladies into gender neutral (no other single sex facility) but there's big gaps above and below doors and communal hand washing. I wasn't sure if it's the result of the new guidance ?

oops mis-gendered you lol x

I’d appreciate any tips or advice @SingleSexSpacesInSchools. I raised it before with estates after an unpleasant incident in those loos but their view was because there were other single sex toilets we could use on the same floor, then it wasn’t an issue for us to go elsewhere if we disliked the GN ones.

I would really like to put the smug estates bloke in his place so welcome any advice at all about what to say!

I remained calm and on my feet when a mastiff lunged at my throat. That was 40 years ago and I still have the scars. I've been crossexamined in the Old Bailey and after the trial was praised by a police officer for my steadiness and clarity in the witness box. I've travelled overland, alone, through Russia and China - before the days of Google maps and online translators. I've walked miles by myself at night through London,
and in the countryside.

I still shook the first time I had to raise this at work (NHS). Bravery isn't not feeling scared. It's knowing you're taking a risk and doing it anyway.

Well done, Iriseee.

Lets not forget Pablo the gender fluid dog.

My remarks over a ‘dog in a frock’ plunged me into a Kafkaesque nightmare

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/9dfe6174e45b2fcb

I think some of the "shaking and crying" stuff you see on MN is OTT, however, I would say bringing up a wildly socially contentious issue with a stranger is the exact kind of thing that people who are a little shy find quite terrifying. A bit like public speaking. I was with my book group I run at work a few weeks ago, and corrected one of the ladies about a minor legal point around laws about sports, and I has a massive blood rush to my head. It was kind of crazy really, and I'm generally a pretty confident speaker.

Women know very well that those who speak up have had rape, death threats, been sacked, insulted, ostracised, doxxed, arrested, attacked, pilloried, etc.

Its hardly surprising that many are wary about it.

I mean have a skip over to Reddit and see what is being said.

Most of the threats are bluster, of course, but there are some deeply disturbed and misogynist people involved in 'gender' activism.

Do you mean the women who post on this particular section of Mumsnet or Mumsnet as a whole? I certainly don’t get the same I impression as you from the posters on FWR.

Well done OP. You still did it even though you found it hard.

No, not FWR.

Fair point(s). It's ridiculous that women have ended up in the position of defending themselves against this lunacy in 2026 and, just for clarity, I'm totally with the OP here.

You think it's impossible that the manager might be fully on board with transactivism? OP had no idea what her reception would be when she brought this up. Women have been threatened and had the police set on them for less. Luckily she wasn't.

@Keeptoiletssafecan you (or anyone else) confirm the rules for publicly available temporary toilets? I'm at a festival where the public area has trailer type ones labelled "ladies gents" which can be separated with a dividing door but instead the door is locked open and the cubicles (big floor gaps) are apparently to be used by anyone.

Thank you. Exactly this. A woman sharing a specific fear is NOT - what was that patronising wording? "painting herself as a pathetic creature"
Nor is it antifeminist to have fears while being a woman. What a ridiculous take.

They do not meet regulations. If they are separated by sex then the door between them needs to be locked. If they are universal then the cubicles need to be floor to ceiling with washbasins inside the cubicles. Notify the event management and ask them to lock the door.

Have raised it with them.

What did they say?

Hi @JumpingPumpkin I see Wallace has answered it above and that sounds correct - that door is there for a reason. Never have I come across a regulated design with door gaps that allows both sexes to use it.

At a festival, those trailer toilets sound a much better design solution than enclosed portaloos - drinking, drugs, crowds and enclosed toilets aren’t a good combination. You could hose mud off them much easier too. But obviously one trailer for men, one for women, one with accessible toilets.

She's going to look into it. It's a small family friendly festival. I doubt it'll be fixed this weekend but if you can point me to the guidelines it would be helpful. They had thought individual cubicles was enough.

She also appeared to think it had something to do with recently released guidance, which was a bit weird as previously they've just had men's and women's loos separately - as they still do on the campsite.

which country of the UK are you in?

England. Apologies for the slow reply - it didn't show as a new message.