UK requires gender-divided toilets in schools and hospitals | gender identity

The British Government wants all newly built schools, hospitals, shopping centres, restaurants and other non-residential buildings in the country to have a bathroom for men and a bathroom for women instead of a single neutral toilet, as now exists in some spaces.

The proposal was announced this Monday, May 6th, and is included in a new bill that, Rishi Sunak’s Government believes, will put an end to the recent concerns of women, the elderly and people with physical disabilities regarding “ security, privacy and dignity” of neutral bathrooms, reads the site.

The Government is expected to present the proposal in Paramento in the coming weeks. If approved, says the BBC, it will come into force later this year.

In a statement, the British Government said that the decision came after a questionnaire with the participation of 17 thousand people: 81% defended the existence of bathrooms separated by gender and 82% agreed with the presence of gender-neutral bathrooms. in addition to these two when space allows.

Therefore, if the proposal moves forward, the establishments included in the proposal will be required to have two bathrooms identified with female and male genders and, if possible, a gender-neutral toilet. However, the document details, this extra bathroom will have to be independent and closed, meaning it can only be used by one person at a time.

According to the Guardiana ban on gender-neutral bathrooms in the UK was first proposed in 2021. LGBT+ advocacy groups consider the measure to be “transphobic” as it offers no solutions for transgender and non-binary people.

In response to the Government’s bill, Mermaids, an organization that supports children transnon-binary and gender-fluid, highlights that neutral bathrooms are important as this community often does not feel comfortable or safe when using a toilet with a man or woman symbol on the door.

“We want a future in which every young person can choose a bathroom with freedom and autonomy; for some, this would be a gender-neutral bathroom and, for others, it would be a gender-specific bathroom,” they wrote, quoted by the same newspaper.

Kemi Badenoch, British Minister for Women and Equality and one of the proponents of the measure, believes that neutral bathrooms “deny privacy and dignity to both men and women”. In a statement, the minister also adds that the new law demonstrates the country’s Government’s commitment to ensuring that “spaces for people of the same sex are protected”.

In schools, bathrooms and changing rooms for children aged eight and over will also be separated by gender. Universities are the only institutions that are left out of the measure. Even so, the proposal considers that they should also apply the standards.

This proposal comes after a review of the constitution of the British National Health Service that forced the creation of gender-divided wards in hospitals. People transwrites the British daily, will be sent and treated in “individual rooms”.

Neutral bathrooms in Portugal

In December 2023, the previous Government approved a set of gender self-determination measures in schools, but the law does not mention the creation of neutral bathrooms.

One of the points states that schools must guarantee that students “in the exercise of their rights and taking into account their expressed wishes, access bathrooms and changing rooms, ensuring the well-being of all, making the necessary adaptations consider necessary.”

However, some universities, such as the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto (FPCEUP), and primary schools have already adopted neutral bathrooms, as reported by PÚBLICO.