Wellington calls for more gender diverse bathrooms

More gender diverse bathrooms are on council's to-do list. Photo / 123rf

As the capital celebrates Wellington's Pride Festival this month, members of the rainbow community say there are "still fights to fight".

Gender diverse bathrooms are on the council's agenda, as gender diverse Wellingtonians call for accessibility in both public and private settings.

Non-binary student Rhys Bilderbeck said public bathrooms had always been something that made them uncomfortable.

As a university student, they usually had access to gender diverse bathrooms on campus, but said they needed to be more available around the city.

Non-binary student Rhys Bilderbeck. Photo / Supplied

"I definitely think gendered toilets is something that has been slowly getting better over the course of a few years.

"But when it comes to restaurants, bars and those kind of spaces there's often only a male and female bathroom.

"And that can get quite uncomfortable for people like me, or trans people that don't feel like they 'pass', and don't feel like they're comfortable in either bathroom.

"For their safety and for my safety, I think it would be best if we could have those gender neutral bathrooms in more of a variety of spaces."

Wellington City councillor Rebecca Matthews said the council was in the process of establishing a rainbow advisory group, to discuss topics such as the provision of more gender neutral bathrooms.

"As a council we are trying to do what we can in always trying to have gender neutral bathrooms as an option," she said.

"We are definitely that way for all of our new toilet facilities that we put in, but it is playing catch-up I guess ... I think we all need to do a bit better in the public and private sector."

Wellington City councillor Rebecca Matthews. Photo / Mark Mitchell

She said gender neutral bathrooms were something more customers were asking for.

"We can help through council to amplify those voices and also play a leadership role ourselves, that we start to do better in our public facilities and people start to expect gender neutral bathrooms."

When asked about how Wellington could become more inclusive, prominent Wellington Drag King Hugo Grrrl said the creation of more drag spaces in the city would make the industry more accessible.

"As someone who runs drag shows what really chokeholds us in that way is our Wellington venues," he said.

"Wellington is an incredible space in terms of if you want to make something of yourself, you can – there's a lot of small-scale venues.

Wellington drag king Hugo Grrrl is hosting a drag brunch on Sunday. Photo / Supplied

"But in terms of sustainability in keeping the industry alive, we're strangled a little bit by the fact that we have no mid-tier venues ... once you outgrow those 100-person venues there's few places you can go."

He said the number of drag king and queens in the capital had "exploded" in the past years, but the industry was not without its problems.

"The elitism and commercialism and inaccessibility of drag is always a concern, especially for younger performers. So we'll keep on hustling and keep on trying to make it a beautiful safe, accessible space for everyone .

"I would say that Wellington is a pretty Pride-friendly place. I moved here at 17 hearing that it was kind of the queer city to be, and I would say that's true now.

"Of course we've still got a long way to go and fights to still fight, but I am proud to be a Wellingtonian."

Hugo Grrrl is hosting a drag brunch at Eva Beva on Sunday May 14.