Public toilets and changing rooms going unisex bringing greater comfort to gender fluid comfort stops

Gender-based public toilets and changing rooms are being swapped across the country in favour of single cubicles that can be used by anyone.

Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch councils have told the Herald they are progressively increasing the number of gender-neutral toilets - a move said to be in line with smaller councils across the country.

It comes amid rhetoric about “women’s spaces” associated with the visit by British activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, who has claimed women are not safe in toilets and changing rooms used by trans women.

The police have told the Herald it has no record of any complaint or threat relating to the scenarios pushed by those opposed to trans women in women’s toilets or changing rooms. Academic research has found the same overseas.

Auckland Council’s customer and community services director Dr Claudia Wyss said increasing the number of gender-neutral public toilets and changing facilities is about “ensuring existing facilities or new facilities are fit for purpose”.

She said new facilities, or those up for renewal, were “designed to be universally accessible and inclusive to all sectors of the community” which included providing gender-neutral public toilets or changing facilities.

“Single person [or] one cubicle toilets, as well as accessible toilets, have a range of benefits. These include improved safety, accessibility and can also reduce the overall number required in lower-use facilities.”

British activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull aka Posie Parker was drowned out by trans rights supporters at Albert Park. Photo / Dean Purcell

Wyss pointed to the Albany Stadium Pool and Te Manawa community hub in West Auckland as examples of new developments built with gender-neutral facilities.

“We recognise the importance of having facilities that are accessible to people of all gender identities and will continue to upgrade our facilities where possible to ensure that we meet the evolving needs of our communities.”

A spokesman for Wellington City Council said its public toilets policy from the early 2000s had led to almost all public toilets - and those in libraries - being gender-neutral.

He said there remained older facilities, including the council’s offices, which still had male and female toilets but it council’s aim was to pursue gender-neutral facilities where possible.

The spokesman said the policy was a money saver by removing the need for facilities catering to each gender and also offered greater security.

“And, as various observers have pointed out, we don’t have separate men’s/women’s toilets in our homes so why do we need them in public too?”

Christchurch City Council’s head of recreation, sports and events Nigel Cox said its newer facilities provided gender-neutral toilets and bathrooms. He said the council was in the process of creating gender-neutral spaces in older facilities to provide people with “an option to change in a more private area where they can feel safe”.

The provision of public toilets was heavily weighted in favour of men with Auckland’s first public toilet for women opening in 1910 at Grafton Bridge - 40 years after facilities were provided for men.

By 1949 there were six public women’s toilets and 20 for men but those for men were open longer.

The Grafton Bridge public toilets which allowed space for women in 1910, 40 years after men in Auckland had public toilets.

AUT University’s Dr Tof Eklund, a lecturer in the School of Language and Culture, said Victorian social division was intent on creating spaces in which men and women were kept separate.

It was a time when the sight of a woman’s ankle was scandalous and when men and women separated to separate lounges for social engagement.

Those gender-defined places served to restrict women’s movement to domestic places. “Part of what has changed is we have had since 1910 over a century of women’s progress in a lot of areas.”

Eklund, who is non-binary, said the question of “why” was more likely lower cost and moving ahead of foreseeable social change. “I don’t think Auckland Council is doing this for me. There’s nothing a politician likes better than being able to completely sidestep a hot potato.”

Jack Byrne, co-principal investigator for the “Counting Ourselves” survey of trans and non-binary people, said the approach was being adopted by councils across the country and was a similar approach to that taken by the Ministry of Education for school refurbishments and rebuilds.

British activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull aka Posie Parker spoke at Albert Park. Photo / Dean Purcell

“Every person needs to feel safe in changing rooms and using public bathrooms, and many people feel uncomfortable in open plan changing rooms. Privacy is important to many people, not just trans people.

“It’s often a huge relief for trans people to find accessible, single-use cubicles – or to enter a bathroom that matches their gender and see lockable doors on toilets and showers or curtained-off changing areas.

He said some people opposed to trans women using women’s facilities - as expressed by Keen-Minshull - often suggested disability toilets as a solution.

“Not only are those toilets hard to find, this argument rests on the erroneous and harmful assumption and stereotype that trans women pose a threat to other women in bathrooms.”