In defence of gender neutral toilets

In December the Liverpool Tab slated their new gender neutral toilets that many students had campaigned for. Students in Liverpool seemed to be against the gender neutral toilets that had newly been introduced, but they’re wrong, and here’s why.

The controversial toilets

One controversial point made by opponents of gender neutral toilets is that, although they’re beneficial for transgender students, the actual number of transgender students in that uni town may be small.

But why does it matter how many trans people there are? It only takes there to be one transgender person for the issue of gender neutral toilets to be important.

Why are people against this?

Member of the LGBT Club and secretary for GenderJam, MK Maguire sums up why it is important.

Mark says: “Cis people have very little understanding of what some trans people go through every day when doing something as basic as peeing. They run the risk of getting beaten up, screamed at, and abused for using their gender of bathroom, or simply not knowing which of the binary genders available they should use.

“Even using the disabled toilets create problems if trans people are confronted on their presence there, it takes facilities away from those who are actually disabled, some stalls are found inside gendered bathrooms and it’s insulting to the trans people who feel like society’s long term answer is to treat their trans identity as a disability.

“Anyone, especially if they’re cis, who tries to claim that the solution, which is sharing a bathroom with other genders is “icky” or “not right” needs to grow up and see that society is growing more and more aware and accepting of non binary identities and gender neutral toilets will debunk the myth of this massive gender divide and make everywhere a lot safer for trans people. And anyone who doesn’t think that is a good thing is a croc of shit”

Creative Writing second year and member of Spectrum, Rachel Dodd said: “I know for some cis people they might feel uncomfortable sharing a bathroom however for people who don’t fit into the conventional genders they’re a life saver.

“It’s not just that the toilets are good for trans people but also for people who are unsure of their gender, agender or genderfluid. It’s somewhere safe where you don’t have to get judged when all you’re trying to do is pee.”

“As for the idea that there aren’t that many trans people at one university is absolute bollocks. A huge group of 20 something people are at a stage in their lives where they’re figuring out parts of their lives and even if they’re not out yet doesn’t mean they don’t exist. One of my best friends was a cis girl when they started uni and now a year on they’ve discovered that they’re more comfortable now they’ve accepted that they’re genderfluid.”

Maybe we should all take a leaf out of Bristol’s book

And actually, most people don’t care about their toilets being gendered.

In fact, they would make it even easier to get all your mates in for selfies on a night out.

Squad trip to the loo is just a distant dream for me

A spokesperson for Queen’s Students Union said: “At the moment we are not planning to put in gender neutral toilets.

“If anyone wishes to discuss any changes made to the Student’s Union, there are student officers available here to help you.”

Liverpool should consider themselves lucky, at QUB we don’t have the luxury of a full squad toilet selfie.