“My first thought going into a men’s bathroom isn't sexually harassing people, it's going to the toilet. It's just a normal thing.”
*Warning: offensive language is used throughout this article.
Going to the toilet sounds mundane, but for Joseph* it was a terrifying experience as he was met with abuse when using the men’s loos. "Oi, what is a faggot like you doing here? You fuckin' tranny gender non-conforming bastards are ruining this country. Don't come back here, love. If I see you again in here I'll smash your fuckin' teeth into the pavement." No-one did anything. This isn’t an uncommon reaction when this happens to a pre-op trans man or anyone whose apart of the LGBTQ+ community; the conversation around gender-neutral toilets has sparked controversy.
Joseph decided to suck it up, he didn’t want to risk his family seeing it plastered all over social media, as he hasn’t yet come out to them about being transgender. Throughout college, he was told to use the disabled toilets instead of using the men’s despite him identifying as a man. He said: “Not only is it a bit insulting, essentially implying that being transgender is a disability or an illness, it also takes the facilities for actual people with disabilities away.”
Raymond Martin, Managing Director of the British Toilet Association, faces these issues daily as he works on making Britain’s loos for everyone. He said: “These accessible toilets are actually becoming multi-use toilets now. So why wouldn’t the people who feel that they are transgender and aren’t comfortable in male or female toilets use or seek out to use these accessible units? Transgender is not a disability, it’s a part of the mind.”
People are continuously being ostracised for identifying as transgender; over in America a video went viral on Twitter last month when a transgender girl tried to use the female loos, the staff at her High School decided to unlock the cubicle and then suspended her.
Trans men and women constantly live in fear because they don’t know if the next time they leave the house to go to school, work or just to use a public toilet, they might be verbally abused or worst. In March this year Naomi Hersi, a trans woman from London was brutally murdered by Jesse McDonald who was sentenced to life, but his girlfriend and accomplice was only given 150 hours of unpaid work.
According to The Independent, Stonewall says that 41% of transgender people last year experienced hate crime because of how they identify, and YouGov found that 79% didn’t report the crimes because of fear of further discrimination.
Joseph believes that to take steps forward and to decrease the numbers of hate crimes is to educate others, he said: “Conflict could easily be avoided if people were more educated on the subject. My first thought going into a men’s bathroom isn't sexually harassing people, it's going to the toilet. It's just a normal thing.”
Across the country more gender-neutral toilets are being implemented, both the University of Northampton and the University of Bristol put them in place this year. The University of Bristol spent £3.4 million alone to upgrade their toilet facilities, which includes accessible and gender-neutral loos. Paul Smith, the University of Bristol’s Deputy Director of Estates, said: “Our investment in gender-neutral toilets responds to our students and staff requests for more inclusive bathroom provision, to ensure everyone has access to toilets where they feel comfortable, anywhere on campus.”
It’s thought that unisex toilets could cut the waiting times for women using loos, especially in busy cities like Birmingham and London. But it’s also known that women feel uncomfortable using the same toilets as a man; a study said 35% of people would feel intimidated using the same toilets as the opposite sex.
Raymond became a single dad of two girls when his wife died 30 years ago, he would use accessible toilets instead of taking them into the men’s because of how unhygienic they were and he couldn’t take them into the females because he was a man. He said: “I didn’t want to take two young vulnerable children into a man’s toilets. I couldn’t go into the female toilets because I was a man, so I had to use a disabled unit. There are toilets which are for all of us, we all need to go no matter what sex we are.”
But at the same time Raymond believes that women need separate toilets to men, he continued: “From the female perspective, females have their own privacy, there’s a lot of issues around menstruation and a lot of issues around dignity where females want to have their own toilets.”
Joseph believes that intimidation is curated from a small percentage of males who have been disrespectful towards women. “Many of us in general just want to go to the toilet, there's no evil hidden intent behind this. If women are seeing those transgender people as males, then there's something wrong there and it's a fear brought on by cis-males abusing power.”
The point was enforced on a survey that shared loos don’t create more harassment or assault, they commented: “Trans people deserve to self-identify as whatever gender they are. The argument that unisex toilets would be "unsafe" or an invasion of "safe spaces for women" is ridiculous. Countries with unisex toilets have not had an increase in attacks in these spaces.”
In August the Express reported that the Home Office in Westminster spent £40,000 on gender-neutral toilets to create inclusivity, but the women working there felt uncomfortable because men were leaving the stool doors open. It’s said that this could affect further investment in similar projects as its seen as a waste of money because people aren’t using them properly or at all. This year alone the British Army, BBC and Channel 4 have spent thousands on implementing gender-neutral toilets for their offices and headquarters.
Baroness Rennie Fritchie has dedicated her life to creating equality, diversity and speaking up particularly for women. She believes that gender-neutral toilets aren’t the way to go and that we should keep gender specific loos: “We tend to go differently, not all men and not all women I must add, but we have to think what we do in there, people think it’s nonsense that we make people go differently. I don’t know what you do but I comb my hair, put my lipstick on and chat to the person next to me whilst trying not to listen to the steady stream in the cubicle next to me.”
On the other hand, Joseph argues that gender-neutral loos should be implemented but they should be there as a choice. “Optional gender-neutral toilets are the way to go these days, because then it lets people choose whether or not they want to share one. I don't think it's something that should be forced, and regardless of anyone's opinions, I'm still going to use the right toilet for me and if MTF (male to female) transgender people have sincere intentions, they'll keep using the female toilets without causing an issue.”
The problem seems to lie in the fact that there aren’t a sufficient number of public toilets or they lack in hygiene. In 2008 and 2011 councils funding was cut by 20% and they realised there was no legal requirement to provide the public toilets and so they stopped being a priority. Raymond says the country is losing public toilets at an alarming rate, he said: “The government won’t listen, or department of health won’t listen that people need to use the toilet, not going can put harm to human life, the trouble is that there aren’t sufficient toilets around to be provided for us.” Being a part of the British Toilet Association he understands that not only do we need to work on keeping the toilets we have, we need to make them better and women need more sanitary bins, he added: “The planners who built these toilets are looking at the space and cutting it in half, half male and half female, and being like there you go there’s equality for you. No, it’s not.”
*Names have been changed to protect individual’s identity.