Community features

Every week, the Student Union bar on the university’s Stoke campus at Leek Road reaches capacity numbers. So, at the beginning of the 2009 term, the union bar trialled the opening of one of the sets of toilets as a mixed sex facility to cut down the queues. The union was also addressing itself to issues presented by transgender and transvestite students.

Mixing the sexes

The idea arose last November when the Student’s Union received many requests for gender neutral toilets in the LRV.
By December the Student’s Union council agreed to have one set of toilets,’ gender neutral’, as a trial at the first of its ‘Gobble’ club nights when the students returned for 2009.
Since then the university has kept the toilet area open to men and women alike, in which cubicles can be used by anyone, regardless of sex.

Embarrassment

However, some individuals have mentioned the fact that separate toilets can provide embarrassment and harassment. 
This provisional change was a shock to many, and mixed reviews were the result.
Sita Patel, Student at the University said, “I was shocked when the toilets first opened, I have never shared with men before.  I felt uncomfortable.”
But she has since adjusted. She continued, “Now I happily use the gender neutral toilets. I think they are a good idea for people who do not want to be put into a category.”
Sita may be referring to transvestite and transgender students who have suffered harassment in the past by going into the ‘wrong’ toilets.

Future?

It is not yet known whether the policy of mixed toilets will remain, but it seems to have been accepted.
With the Student’s Union having a policy of providing an environment without discrimination, mixed gendered toilets may be a facility here to stay.

Elsewhere

Other places have tried the same idea.  Famously, the toilets in the nineties TV programme ‘Ally McBeal’ were mixed-sex, and the staff toilet areas at the BBC Centre in Birmingham have cubicles only, which are used by both sexes.
However the University of Manchester in particular has had many problems.  There, many complaints have been made about the change - as many females have felt uncomfortable sharing toilets with men.

The policy is to be re-assessed in the future, when the Union Council’s motion is re-discussed - but for now the toilets remain open for all.
Your opinion
What do you think?  Would you be happy with mixed-sex toilet areas? Or do you think it’s irrelevant? Use the messageboard below to post your comment….