Kansas airport’s all-gender mixed bathrooms get mixed response

The new bathrooms at a Kansas airport have had an unusual amount of attention. Photo / File

Travellers have claimed they would rather relieve themselves in a parking lot than use the all-gender bathrooms at Kanasas International Airport’s new terminal.

The airport revealed its new bathrooms in February as part of a major redevelopment.

This included several impressive features including an target="_blank">aeroplane simulation room for nervous fliers, a quiet room, indoor and outdoor pet areas and glass boarding bridges, but it was the bathrooms that gained considerable media attention.

The all-gender bathrooms are marked with a green sign featuring the icon for a man and a woman. Instead of partial wall panels and doors like in most public restrooms, the cubicles will be fully enclosed for privacy.

Lights also indicate what stalls are available, with a green light for free and red light for occupied.

Including all-gender bathrooms was described as a “controversial” move by local news media and people didn’t hold back criticism on social media, describing the bathrooms as “taxpayer-funded perversion”.

The airport has reminded passengers that there are still separate bathrooms for men and women. These are colour-coded yellow for women and blue for men, while the all-gender bathrooms are green.

However, some travellers were still unhappy about the new bathrooms.

“Kansas City airport!! Helll nooo. I will not fly into this airport,” wrote a woman on Twitter, who said she would relieve herself in the parking lot rather than use the all-gender bathrooms.

Justice Horn, who is the chair of the Kansas City LGBTQ Commission, took the opportunity to make a light joke, retweeting the post with the comment: “wait till she hears how the bathrooms on the plane work...”.

For other travellers, particularly women, who often wait in long queues for the toilets while the men’s line quickly cycles through, the news is welcome.

In fact, it was this exact phenomenon that prompted the deputy director of aviation for Kansas City International Airport to champion all-gender bathrooms when designing the new terminal.

While observing passenger flow in the old airport, Justin Meyer noticed passengers would get off a flight and head straight to the bathroom, where a long line would grow for the women’s bathroom but not the men’s.

“It’s not fair that there are no lines for the guys,” Meyer told online travel guide, Frommer’s, “but the women’s room has a line 10 people long.”

By introducing all-gender bathrooms, the airport could optimise access and efficiency, Meyer said.

Fortunately, travellers who have actually used the bathrooms seem to have few complaints.

A TikTok clip showed a traveller named Kelly trying the bathrooms and asking fellow travellers what they thought.

One woman said she hadn’t known they were all gender and had been surprised.

“I stopped and had a moment where I’m like,” she said, mimicking her confusion when she had seen a man inside. A woman beside her, jumped in: “I know! I was like, ‘Am I going in the correct one?’”

@kellykellz_22

I'm a little confused about this situation #viral #38B #women #foryou #funny #lbgtq

♬ original sound - KellyKellz22

One man said it was his first time but seemed unbothered.

“This is my first time in one. I was kinda thrown off,” he said, laughing.

Kansas International Airport may have ruffled feathers but certainly didn’t break new ground by including the all-gender bathrooms. In the US, San Francisco and Newark already have similar bathrooms, while they are common across Europe and China.