The new offices, schools, hospitals and entertainment venues are expected to have separate toilets for men and women, government sources have confirmed, to an extent to curb the unique installation of gender-neutral facilities.
Ministers will formally announce this week that it is acting to prevent non-residential buildings from being built solely with “universal” toilets. The move will involve changes to building regulations and planning guidelines.
The plans, led by Equality Minister Kemi Badenoch, were quietly approved last month, the Sunday Telegraph reported. The government has said some children avoid using toilets at school because they only have access to gender-neutral facilities.
The policy was first proposed in May 2021 and was criticized as transphobic because it offered no alternative plan for trans and non-binary people.
Proponents of trans rights have pointed out that gender-neutral toilets can be reassuring for some transgender men and women who fear discrimination in binary toilets.
The then Secretary of State for Housing, Robert Jenrick, dismissed the accusation and identified the concerns of some women about the reduction in privacy and longer queues resulting from gender-neutral facilities. .
Following an intense debate over whether trans women should have automatic access to single-sex spaces such as restrooms, prisons, and locker rooms. Recently there has been a debate about the participation of trans women in women’s sport.
Badenoch has said the planned changes to toilet regulations are legal and “important” to provide unisexual spaces for men and women.
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The guidance will be applied to buildings of more than a certain size and will be established after a technical consultation in the autumn.
Downing Street wants the changes to apply to all buildings that function as commercial premises. Government Property Agency guidelines will be updated to ensure that new or remodeled government buildings provide single-sex restrooms.
Some women’s rights groups have argued that women are “disadvantaged” by gender-neutral facilities that contain a mixture of urinals and booths because they cannot use urinals, while men can use them. the bear.
“Also, a lot of women and girls don’t want to go past the urinals to get to the cubicles of the old men’s facilities,” the Fair Play for Women campaign group said in a presentation to the government.
In 2019, London’s Old Vic Theater became the last place to face criticism when it turned all its male and female toilets into neutral toilets as part of a refurbishment.
The theater doubled the number of toilets in the building and said it would mark new rooms with images of a cubicle or urinal, “allowing people to make their own decision about which toilet is right for them. “.
A government source confirmed that an announcement is expected this week.