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EHRC suggestion on toilet facilities

(286 Posts)
Galaxy Sat 26-Apr-25 19:41:33

The EHRC guidance covers all single sex facilities ( prisons, refuges, etc) and also ensures that for example lesbians can have organisations without the presence of men, it really is about more than toilets.

M0nica Sat 26-Apr-25 19:23:16

ViceVersa

There's a big difference between sharing a toilet with male members of the family and one in a park or pub, even if it has the kind of cubicles M0nica describes. In that scenario, for instance, what's to stop a man from coming in, pushing you back into the cubicle and assaulting you?

Frankly highly improbable. I used the loos I described at the Wallace Collection in London, a wide - 6feet or so, brightly lit corridor directly off a busy passage through the museum with no doors or ubstruction between the passage through the loos and the passage where people were walking. You could look down this brightly lit area as you walked past.

Wyllow3 Sat 26-Apr-25 18:50:39

If it's an empty ladies in a quiet area then it could equally happen in that toilet? Always been a possibility.

The ideal are one person toilets that anyone can use, probably as in the O/P.

Certainly it's worth planners thinking where public toilets are situated. I think in terms of right now where there are male/female toilets then add another "unisex" along the lines of a disabled toilet.

My park has a row of one toilet facilities in a busy spot, male, female, disabled, family. If the ladies has broken down, you use one of the others.

RosieandherMaw Sat 26-Apr-25 18:50:14

I've always been against mixed facilities but last week in Amsterdam the loos at one of the museums was unisex- as far as I could see each cubicle had a dual symbol on the door and nobody was a bit bothered.
As far as the danger of a man pushing a woman into a cubicle and assaulting her, honestly it would never have occurred to me.
But yes I concede , it depends where and who the likely " clientele" are of course.

ViceVersa Sat 26-Apr-25 18:31:33

There's a big difference between sharing a toilet with male members of the family and one in a park or pub, even if it has the kind of cubicles M0nica describes. In that scenario, for instance, what's to stop a man from coming in, pushing you back into the cubicle and assaulting you?

Doodledog Sat 26-Apr-25 18:00:08

Macadia

Why, Doodledog?

For safety reasons. Somewhere busy, with people around, and a good chance that you will recognise people (and so spot a stranger) it is perfectly safe, if not always pleasant, to have men using the loo. In a park or a pub where the loos are away from the busy areas it is different.

sue421 Sat 26-Apr-25 17:43:20

Need to think carefully here. I have no grudge regarding trans... it is what it is, I take that on board BUT everyone has to be safe. I hate using mixed sex toilets, did it in Italy, seemed ok, but don't take away my privacy. However, I do not feel threatened by a trans..... I will chat to anyone.

Macadia Sat 26-Apr-25 17:34:45

Why, Doodledog?

Doodledog Sat 26-Apr-25 17:07:56

I think it depends where they are. I wouldn't mind using a mixed sex loo at work, for instance (although I would prefer a female-only one), and it's quite usual in independent cafes, but in a park, or in a pub where the loos are sited away from the busy area I wouldn't like it.

M0nica Sat 26-Apr-25 16:31:45

I have been to several venues where everything was in cubicles, with floor to ceiling walls and sealing doors, thus ensuring anyone using them total privacy and everyone used them, male, female, trans aand everything else everyone has thought of.

Much simpler and easier.

LaCrepescule Sat 26-Apr-25 15:30:38

The EHRC has suggested that trans people should be provided with separate toilet facilities. How businesses/organisations are expected to provide this will be interesting and what will they be called? Personally I’m all for having facilities for men/women/trans/whatever else you see yourself as, as single spaces.
I’ve been known to use the gents toilets when the queue for the ladies was too long. And after all, most of us had to share a bathroom/toilet with the male members of our families.
As long as the urinals are kept separate from the cubicles, what’s the issue?