Is it time for gender-neutral toilets?

In my years of blogging by the calendar, I’ve been particularly faithful to World Toilet Day on 19 November with its emphasis on the importance of clean and safe sanitation for global health, equality and well-being. My interest in this topic came from travelling in countries where toilet facilities can’t be taken for granted, and discovered that a blog post on the subject could play a small part in raising awareness of the issue. But for this year, I’d already decided to shift my focus away from toilets, or their lack of, in the Global South onto a toiletry provision nearer home, when I discovered that this would enable me to mark another international commemorative day dear to my heart on the following day.

As someone who squirmed when my local swimming baths introduced mixed-use cubicles, I might not be a natural flag-waver for gender-neutral toilets. But I’ve used them in a school where our choir sometimes has rehearsals (I believe introduced as the more open area can help combat bullying) and I’ve read about their introduction to West Hollywood, the LGBT capital of southern California, and I’m sure I could adjust. Especially if it makes life easier for people at particularly high risk of suicide because, let’s face it, if your gender identity doesn’t coincide with your physical sex, or if you’re in the process of transitioning from one to the other, it’s likely to add an extra layer of stress to an already stressful existence if you face an impossible choice and the risk of ostracism every time you need the toilet, as the novel Sworn Virgin testifies. Individual stalls that can be used by either men or women or anyone in between would also eliminate those infuriating queues for “the ladies” when the male cubicles remain vacant.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance on 20 November has been established to memorialise transgender and gender nonconforming people who have died as a result of hate crimes. I can’t claim that gender-neutral toilets would have prevented any of these tragedies, but they might have made people’s lives just a tiny bit easier.
So what do you say, would you like to see more provision of gender-neutral toilets? For more of my thoughts on the peculiarities of gender, see this post from week five of the Sugar and Snails blog tour. You can learn more about the importance of safe sanitation in the Twitter stream #WorldToiletDay and The Transgender Day of Remembrance at #TDOR.

I was ready to post this, when I found the latest flash fiction challenge from Charli Mills in my inbox. I reckoned I could find a way of combining toilets, transgender stressors and dance:

I shuffle from one foot to the other like I’m dancing a jig. The pressure’s gone past painful, but still I hesitate. The dolly-peg man looks docile, but those arms could pack a punch. My flared skirt matches the other one, yet I know I won’t be welcomed behind that door. Almost wetting myself, I sneak into the cubicle. Hoisting up my skirt, pulling down my frilly knickers, I point my penis at the porcelain. Calm again, I reapply my lipstick before sashaying out. A woman glowers at me from her wheelchair. Welcome to my daily dance of shame.

I’m not sure whether this one will work out of context, but I’m pleased I had a go. Although it didn’t take me long, I did find it quite awkward to write – but I guess nowhere near as awkward as it would be to face this in the real world.