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Debate: Should schools have gender-neutral bathrooms for transgender students?

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I do not see the problem, where I went to school all of the toilets were individual cubicles coming off a corridor with a teacher sitting in the corridor supervising the toilets to stop pupils lingering, fighting, and breaking school rules. The toilets were not build to be gender inclusive, the toilets were built to give more privacy, more space, and more comfort to all pupils using them.

Reply 81

username2080673

I've seen them work, there's not much else to say. Should be the case in all schools.

Reply 82

doodle_333

My high school had mixed sex bathrooms (and had them before any concerns about gender neutral kids). They had other benefits too as people didn't hang around in them the same way as in the single sex toilets. I don't really see the problem, there's no reason NOT to have gender neutral toilets - OK they may not benefit a large number of people but they're also not harming anyone.

Reply 83

Joinedup

Original post by Good bloke

I think you'd find that there would be uproar, especially from the parents of thirteen-year old girls who were expected to share the facilities used by eighteen-year old boys.

Well afaict it's certainly true that a lot of parents seem to have nothing better to do than think up strange things to complain about.

Meanwhile in the real world... the eighteen year old girls will beat them up if they try anything nasty.

Reply 84

Good bloke

Original post by Saoirse:3

We should recognise that bullying predominantly occurs within rather than between genders and give children a way to avoid such gendered spaces where possible.

You seem to think that such a toilet would remove the power of a bully as he or she walks through the door. What it really means is that a girl would still be bullied by other girls but in front of boys as well as girls, and vice versa. It would also mean that bullies would be able to target people of the opposite sex more easily, as the victim could not avoid their attentions by escaping into the toilets.

Reply 85

Good bloke

Original post by Joinedup

Well afaict it's certainly true that a lot of parents seem to have nothing better to do than think up strange things to complain about.

So when you are a father you'll be happy for your young daughter to be in a closed room with young men waving their willies around in front of her.

Reply 86

AperfectBalance

We already have a disabled toilet that is perfect for them as it is normally only used by a few students so having a few more would not cause any real issues in terms of large lines and it is secluded. not that I am saying that they are disabled.

Reply 87

Dave Lister.

Original post by euphonious

Tell me what you think. :smile:

No.

Reply 88

TheMathsTeacher

Like I said in a previous post, I don't think the addition of gender-less toilets should mean the abolition of male/female toilets. I just think the addition of a gender-less facilities would make student's who don't identify as male or female more comfortable. AND it would act as an additional facility for the other students. Gender-less doesn't mean if you identify as male or female you can't use them - it would just be a facility open to all students.

If girls didn't want to go to the toilet with boys there, then fair enough, the female toilets would still be available for them. The same as with the males. Maybe I'm over-simplifying the issue (or perhaps overcomplicating) but I just think this is probably the quickest and easiest fix for the problem.

Easier than telling a student "you are a boy or a girl, there's no other option" and quicker than waiting for the rest of the population to catch up with these kinds of progression. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that. Surely the more steps we take towards acceptance, the more widely accepted it would be?

I'm not expert on any of this though, so you may disagree - and that's fine.

Reply 89

Good bloke

Original post by J-SP

If anything cubicles provide more privacy and security.

Hmm. You were not following the debate, were you? The person I was replying to had suggested that urinals could feature in a gender-neutral toilet, outside the cubicles, just as they do in a male toilet.

Reply 90

EnglishRawr

No I don’t think there should be gender neutral toilets but I DO think trans pupils should be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice

Reply 91

Good bloke

Original post by TheMathsTeacher

it would just be a facility open to all students.

One wonders how, if it is used by all, how it will make a minority more comfortable. Would a girl, uncomfortable among girls, be made more comfortable by the presence of boys in an even busier facility?

Original post by TheMathsTeacher

Rome wasn't built in a day and all that.

In Rome, of course, there were no cubicles in public toilets at all, and the means of cleaning oneself after defecation was a communal sponge on a stick, dipped in water between users. Are you advocating such a gender-neutral approach?

Reply 92

Good bloke

Original post by J-SP

They are typically tucked away, usually hidden behind a wall at the back of the toilets.

Then they are not gender-neutral, are they?

Reply 93

DKennell

Just going to put it out there....disabled toilets are genderless...no one has a problem with that. Especially as most people use them anyway. So why not just have a set of toilets?

Reply 94

Joinedup

Original post by Good bloke

So when you are a father you'll be happy for your young daughter to be in a closed room with young men waving their willies around in front of her.

Having disabled her by causing fits of hysterical laughter it would be more easy to steal her dinner money... I'll grant you that.

There are some design considerations - you could have a lot of individual user toilets off a corridor (as someone already mentioned) or a few communal toilets around the place in which case you'd have to think about the amount of loitering room there was - this was one of the problems IIRC from my old schools vast toilets. If you have enough open floor space for a phalanx of loiterers to build up inside, then trouble is eventually going to occur.

Reply 95

Good bloke

Original post by Joinedup

If you have enough open floor space for a phalanx of loiterers to build up inside, then trouble is eventually going to occur.

A build-up of people who loiter in the toilet in lieu of a place to gossip causes those who toil in the loo to lose out in the discharge of their business as the loiterers gather too loosely and impede their toil; it takes a toll on the toilers' ability to clear the build-up in the loo (often caused by the discharge of too much business when not too loose), leading all to lose out.

Reply 96

Fran2311

Original post by euphonious

Tell me what you think. :smile:

In my school, alot of people use the disabled toilets, which are the only toilets on the upper floor where core subjects take place, in and between lessons, so most toilets are already, gender neutral but mot labelled as so.. But now one has been officially labelled as gender neutral, it has caused an uproar. Personally, as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I think is it a huge step forwards to help every student of the school feel included. But I don't understand why people are upset about it when most of the time, they were using toilets that were gender neutral anyway.

Reply 97

DKennell

Ways to avoid social bloackages: Have the same amount of total number of toilets and urnals, except in just the one space rather than two. Next have a wider gangway for people to wash hands, check face/hair. Finally, realise that the toilets are unsanitary place to socialise and abort gossping mission in said toilets, freeing up room for people who want to use the facilities quietly.

Reply 98

Anonymouse 921

Original post by euphonious

Tell me what you think. :smile:

If you are male you have an XY chromosome, if you are female you have XX chromosomes. You do not lose or gain chromosomes during a 'sex change'. Thus one should go to the bathroom of their chromosome combination, as it is impossible to change one's gender.

As a conclusion, as one cannot change their gender, then they should use the bathroom of their birth sex.