Men’s open door policy starts gender war
Women have said they are finding gender-neutral lavatories at the UK Home Office distressing to use because men leave the cubicle doors open.
The toilets, which cost £37,000 (NZ$71,500) to install, have caused tensions in the department’s Westminster headquarters. A notice on the door said: ‘‘Polite notice. Could men using these toilets please use them with the door shut. Women are finding use of the toilets quite distressing and are not using these toilets as a result. Thank you.’’
The UK Home Office has joined several government departments and other employers in converting male and female lavatories to gender-neutral facilities. The cost of converting five male and five female toilets to 10 gender-neutral toilets with three cubicles each was £28,892.50, plus £8070.70 for signs with a picture of a toilet and the description: ‘‘Gender neutral toilets’’.
A department spokesman said: ‘‘We are committed to being an inclusive employer and creating an environment where all staff feel comfortable at work. The works contracted came out of a budget reserved for building maintenance and modification.’’
James Price, campaigns manager at the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said that public money had been ‘‘effectively flushed away’’ on the signs, which have been seen by the Daily Mail newspaper. He said: ‘‘Public spending should be predicated on how people behave in real life, not on how some mandarin thinks they ought to behave on paper. If these facilities are not being used properly then lessons should be learnt to ensure money isn’t wasted on similar projects.’’
Andrea Minichiello Williams, chief executive of the campaign group Christian Concern, which wants to outlaw abortion and believes that homosexuality is a sin, said the case exposed more fundamental problems with genderneutral toilets. ‘‘By attempting to be inclusive towards a very small number of trans-identifying people, companies and public authorities have actually made conditions significantly worse for women . . . Men and women, and boys and girls, need separate, single-sex toilets. This is something women fought hard for and still fight for in parts of the developing world.’’
In June it was revealed that the BBC, which has 417 transgender staff, had installed gender-neutral toilets and changing rooms in all its buildings, in addition to male and female toilets. Channel 4 introduced gender-neutral toilets at its headquarters last year.
The army has introduced genderneutral toilets at its headquarters in Andover, Hampshire, where more than 2000 military and civilian personnel are housed.
Paris Lees, a transgender activist, praised the decision, saying: ‘‘This is great news. Good on the army, who are strong on equality issues and place more importance in how you can do your job.’’ – The Times
‘‘Polite notice. Could men using these toilets please use them with the door shut. Women are finding use of the toilets quite distressing and are not using these toilets as a result. Thank you.’’ Notice on the toilet doors at the Home Office Westminster headquarters