I don’t want to derail the lesbian thread, as that is a very important issue, but I thought some of us might be interested in this article in the Sunday Telegraph. It is good to see that the tide has turned, and that our daughters and granddaughters have not yet been completely sold out.
All new public lavatories must include single-sex male and female toilets.
All new buildings open to the public will have to include single-sex male and female lavatories under plans announced by Kemi Badenoch.
Draft guidance published on Monday aims to protect the privacy of women and elderly individuals and would apply to all non-residential buildings.
Ms Badenoch, the Minister for Women and Equalities, stated that the Government must step in when “common sense disappears,” following a rise in businesses offering gender-neutral toilets without separate single-sex facilities.
Comparable to bathrooms in family homes, unisex toilets are fully enclosed spaces with lockable doors and sinks. Gender-neutral toilets, on the other hand, are mixed-sex facilities where both men and women use the same cubicles and sinks.
The proposed policy would mean a new supermarket, shop or restaurant should have separate single-sex toilets for men and women at a minimum.
In a piece for The Telegraph, Ms Badenoch argues that the discourse around sex-based rights has been “confused” by gender activists, leading to the necessity for legislation that would not have been required a decade ago.
’My job is increasingly spent legislating for common sense and stopping those intent on causing harm,” she says.
“Women should have exclusive access to public toilet facilities reserved specifically for them. Men should have the same. Female loos should have cubicles, while male ones can have urinals.
“Transgender individuals should have privacy. The signage on the door should clearly indicate what to expect.”
Ms Badenoch criticised the Old Vic Theatre in central London for its decision in 2019 to convert all of its male and female toilets to gender-neutral facilities.
She also mentioned that doctors had recently reported instances where girls in certain schools either contracted infections or skipped classes entirely “because they refused to urinate all day” due to their reluctance to use gender-neutral toilets.
Furthermore, ministers will appoint a “lavatories tsar” to address Britain’s toilet crisis, as 10 per cent of facilities have not been reopened by councils following the pandemic.
Industry leaders assert that public restroom availability has decreased by 60 per cent since 2011 due to budget cuts and facilities not reopening post-lockdowns, leading the country into a state of “sanitation darkness.”
Plans are now underway for a Toilet Commissioner who will collaborate with an independent panel of advisors to formulate a strategic plan and reverse this trend.
Authoress
Stupid idea, if you ask me. I am entirely comfortable with sharing a toilet space with people, however they identify, which consists of private stalls.
Next Badenoch will be mandating single-sex toilets in the home...
As has been said several times, this is not about private stalls. It is about cubicles in an enclosed space with shared access (eg a sink area) that is cut off from the rest of the venue.
Allsorts i spent 11 yrs in Germany and the males i knew certainly didn't sit!
..
growstuff how do you know this?
Doodledog
Well if the tsar is only going to be responsible for new buildings it's a bit of a grand title for something that just needs a clause in the planning legislation.
Exactly!
There is a cinema in a town near where I live which has a mixed sex toilet. The door quite clearly show the usual male and female silhouettes. As you enter there is a floor to ceiling wall with two urinals hidden from all but the most penetrating gaze. Straight ahead there are two cubicles - one for disabled people which a hand basin. On the right hand wall there is a second had basin.
For those of us Brits living in France it doesn't seem to be a problem.
One day, queuing for the loo at Bordeaux airport (separate men's and womens') there were more women waiting than men. Some of the women just went into the men's and so avoided the long wait.
Grantanow
And what is she/the Tories doing about the cost of living, mortgages, housing, climate change, etc., etc.? A Toilet Commissioner? Really?
That's what gets me. She's Minister for Women and Equalities, but does absolutely nothing for any of the more general issues of inequality.
Grow stuff, my German boyfriend didn’t! However the important thing is if they have a penis use the male loo because that what they are biologically. Has everything got to be changed to suit minorities, where does it end.
Can’t women just have their own privacy? I don’t want to share with men. My friend years ago had a mastectomy and was in a ward with males that upset her as much as the surgery.
That’s enough on the subject, it become quite frankly ridiculous so won’t read anything about it again, it just goes round in circles. Let them fight it out until we are all Brie beaten.
And what is she/the Tories doing about the cost of living, mortgages, housing, climate change, etc., etc.? A Toilet Commissioner? Really?
Stupid idea, if you ask me. I am entirely comfortable with sharing a toilet space with people, however they identify, which consists of private stalls.
Next Badenoch will be mandating single-sex toilets in the home...
It is.
I vote for the Monica Model 
I don't care about the sex or gender of the person who's used it before me.
I was genuinely stunned at the thought of unisex cubicles all opening into a unisex communal area. Inasmuch as I'd thought about the issue before, I thought it was to do with men maliciously self-identifying as women to get access to our women's only spaces.
Yes, these examples of men being safe, if a bit smelly, are missing the point. The vast majority of men are not predators, and sharing space with them is not putting us at risk. The point is that some men are dangerous, and there are some times when women are vulnerable to attack from those men. The only way to protect us is to ban all men from sharing the single-sex spaces where we go at times when we are vulnerable.
Hetty58
We (I took my best friend) found an empty room with two sets of bunk beds, so both chose a lower one. I awoke as a pair of very hairy legs came down the ladder - so pretended to be fast asleep as the two men got dressed and left!
At least they were not claiming to be anything but men.
Well if the tsar is only going to be responsible for new buildings it's a bit of a grand title for something that just needs a clause in the planning legislation.
Doodledog
growstuff
I could be wrong, but I don't think existing buildings are going to be covered by the new legislation.
It's not mentioned specifically, but I assumed that adaptations to facilities in existing buildings would come under 'common sense', as that really is where the major problems lie. New buildings are easy - but carving up the limited space traditionally give to female users of a building in such a way that they are the ones sharing with everyone except able-bodied and male-identifying men is never going to be satisfactory.
I wouldn't assume anything.
Back in 1970 (as a teenager) I stayed at a youth hostel in Paris. Yes, the loos were communal (quite a shock) and the bedrooms were too.
We (I took my best friend) found an empty room with two sets of bunk beds, so both chose a lower one. I awoke as a pair of very hairy legs came down the ladder - so pretended to be fast asleep as the two men got dressed and left!
Realise maybe I was jumping to a sexist conclusion - I too have seen filthy womens toilets. But it was a bad start …
growstuff
I could be wrong, but I don't think existing buildings are going to be covered by the new legislation.
It's not mentioned specifically, but I assumed that adaptations to facilities in existing buildings would come under 'common sense', as that really is where the major problems lie. New buildings are easy - but carving up the limited space traditionally give to female users of a building in such a way that they are the ones sharing with everyone except able-bodied and male-identifying men is never going to be satisfactory.
Readerjb, at work, teaching, in a very nice area - I was shocked at the state of the ladies loos. A lot of them didn't wash their hands, either - really disgusting.
Allsorts
I wouldn't use single sex loos. If you urinate standing up and are biologically male you use male loos, if you urinate sitting down and are biologically female you use female loos. Ask scientist who have researched this in full, there are two sexes, one might prefer yo be the other, one may only want partners of the same sex that's fine but they are still biologically what they are.Think yourself what you are, dress as you are no one is bothered, but respect biological people's space. By bullying and shouting it doesn't alter a thing.
Most German men sit down to urinate. What does that make them?
Readerjb
The one and only time I used a common toilet, the man before me had left a number two in the bowl! I’m no longer a fan
Plenty of females seem to leave number twos too.
I wouldn't use single sex loos. If you urinate standing up and are biologically male you use male loos, if you urinate sitting down and are biologically female you use female loos. Ask scientist who have researched this in full, there are two sexes, one might prefer yo be the other, one may only want partners of the same sex that's fine but they are still biologically what they are.Think yourself what you are, dress as you are no one is bothered, but respect biological people's space. By bullying and shouting it doesn't alter a thing.
The one and only time I used a common toilet, the man before me had left a number two in the bowl! I’m no longer a fan
I could be wrong, but I don't think existing buildings are going to be covered by the new legislation.
I’m sure that will be fab in the long term, but it is existing buildings that are the problem.
I may have mentioned my workplace about a million times - there the Ladies has become ’gender-neutral’, whilst the Gents remains for men. There is nowhere for women to go where men are not allowed, and the Ladies was carved out of an old classroom anyway as the building was not designed to accommodate the fairer sex in the first place. So, three cubicles with shared sinks are now the ‘provision’ for 50% or so if the users of that building, including the disabled and the odd person needing to change a baby (admittedly rare, but there is a facility in the disabled bay). Men have (I assume) a row of urinals, cubicles of their own, plus access to what used to be our space.
Other buildings have different arrangements depending on the plumbing and design, but that is the setup in the one in which I am based. I understand that many schools have done likewise.
This is why we need a lavatory tsar. This is the sort of thing that has to stop. Build fancy new Lois in fancy new buildings - anyone can do that. But stop taking single sex ones from women in buildings that are already there!
I couldn't agree more MOnica.
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