Why fear all-gender bathroom?
This week, blogTO, the Toronto website that constantly pumps out stories announcing the arrival of wacky stuff our city doesn’t need (for example, “Toronto is getting puppy yoga”) published a story announcing the arrival of something we do need: another “gender inclusive washroom.”
That is, a washroom for anybody who has to go — no matter what they look like or what their preferred pronouns are. But what makes this particular bathroom special isn’t just the fact that anybody can use it. What makes it special is where it is: Yorkdale mall.
Toronto already boasts several gender-inclusive bathrooms, in downtown cafes, at the CNE, at the ROM, in hotels, at high schools and universities (Ryerson University’s website even has a map identifying all the single stall washrooms on campus).
But this is a mall we’re talking about: a commercial hub that services a cross-section of the city, especially during the holidays. And it’s not just any mall. Yorkdale is a mecca of Christmas shopping, movie watching, Black Friday stampeding, bat mitzvah dress buying, Indigo loitering, Booster Juice drinking and novelty cake eating (the mall is home to Canada’s only Cheesecake Factory).
In other words, if you are a teenager with time to kill, there are few places in the city you’d rather be (except maybe a less expensive mall). And if you happen to be transgender, gender non-conforming or anybody of any identity who requires the help of a personal care attendant (or who is shopping with young children in tow) Yorkdale has a bathroom that can accommodate you faster than a single stall can. The new bathroom has 10 stalls and a sign outside its door that poses the question “Why is this washroom allgender?” followed by the answer: “All-gender washrooms provide inclusive options for everyone, including transgender people and people of diverse gender identities and expressions. They also provide comfortable spaces for community members who require the assistance of a personal care attendant and those with young children.”
This explanation is necessary because there remains more fear and ignorance around all-gender bathrooms in our society than there is acceptance. This fear is stoked by conservative pundits and religious activists who very likely don’t know anyone who is transgender — at least, not outside the confines of a hostile exchange on the Internet, or a debate on cable TV.
This fear is predicated on the belief that all-gender bathrooms are a clarion call to predators; that for example, heterosexual cisgender men will use these bathrooms as a means to assault women or children.
This fear is overwhelmingly unfounded. Last year CNN reached out to 20 law enforcement agencies in American states with anti-discrimination policies on the books that covered gender identity and revealed that none who responded “reported any bathroom assaults after the policies took effect.”
But the good news is that if facts don’t quell your fears, you don’t have to use a genderinclusive bathroom at Yorkdale or in any building for that matter. Like the majority of public spaces on this planet, Yorkdale mall has several gender-segregated bathrooms dedicated to serve men who prefer to relieve themselves in the company of other men — and women-only washrooms for women who prefer to wait in a long line for their fellow woman to finish using the toilet and looking in the bathroom mirror disapprovingly.
The mall also boasts standalone washrooms, if you’d rather go to the toilet completely alone, absent the fear that the person in the next stall over will ask you for toilet paper. There is something for everyone.
And everyone, though they may complain about it — the prices, the air quality, the crowds — goes to the mall at some point. It should follow that everyone has a safe place to use the bathroom.
If you still don’t like the idea of an all-gender washroom, I urge you to go to a mall food court, order the wrong thing at New York Fries and eat it in under 10 minutes. You will learn immediately that any addition of available toilets to a shopping centre is a blessing and should not be taken for granted. Especially before Christmas.