If gender-neutral toilets are to be a success, there are still fundamental issues to be resolved. After using the unisex loo, does one leave the seat up or down? Or, in the interests of hygiene rather than comfort, should all seats be removed? 

To speed the flow, are ‘pass-water-only’ male urinals to be redesigned to be uni-sex and, for privacy, placed in cubicles? Are males thereby to be denied their natural right to perform speedily whilst standing up, or will women be required to adopt the male position?

In the basement of the University Student Union building, all three entrance doors to the toilet facilities have posters plastered over them and so are indistinguishable. Not noticing the small directional sign near the ceiling, I assumed that they, too, had succumbed to gender-neutrality and so I chose a door at random. I chose wrongly and was faced by a pack of feisty young women who vigorously asserted their right to comb their hair and do their make-up in privacy. I was in desperate need and I truly feel that, in ejecting me, they seriously violated my newly acquired human right to use the toilet of my choice.

 

Martin Spillane