Single-sex toilets could be mandated for new buildings in England under proposed law
New non-residential buildings in England will be required to provide separate-gender bathrooms, according to proposed legislation that supporters say is aimed at protecting the "safety, privacy and dignity" of both women and men.
The legislation, which will be proposed to Parliament in the coming weeks for implementation later this year, applies to any new or rebuilt building, such as restaurants, shopping malls, offices or public toilets, according to the BBC.
The law would also allow for the option of a "self-contained universal toilet" that includes a toilet, sink and hand-dryer in a small locked room for individual use.
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Kemi Badenoch, who serves as the country's minister for women and equalities, claimed the regulations are in response to growing concerns that the country's proliferating gender-neutral toilets deny dignity to both sexes.
"These regulations will guide organizations to design unisex and single-sex toilets, ending the rise of so-called gender-neutral mixed sex toilet spaces, which deny privacy and dignity to both men and women," Badenoch said in a statement.
"Today's announcement will also create better provision for women so that our particular biological, health and sanitary needs are met," she added.
Badenoch said last week that some schoolgirls in the United Kingdom developed urinary tract infections because they were so averse to using gender-neutral bathrooms and had no access to a single-sex toilet, according to The Guardian.
The government conducted a consultation that found many women, elderly and disabled people felt "unfairly disadvantaged" by gender-neutral toilets, where biological men and women share sinks and stalls in the same space.
According to approximately 17,000 responses the government received during the consultation on the issue, most were in favor of the building regulations. Eighty-one percent supported separate single-sex bathrooms, and 82% agreed with permitting a single-use universal toilet.
Some groups have come out in support of the regulations, though others are claiming it discriminates against transgender-identifying individuals.
Mermaids, a support charity for trans-identifying youth that allegedly provided "chest binders" to children behind parents' backs, argued that gender-neutral universal toilets provide a necessary safeguard against discrimination toward transgender-identifying individuals.
"In order to ensure everyone is served fairly and that everyone can feel comfortable using public toilet facilities, not only are gender-specific facilities in which trans people can feel safe in using vital, but gender-neutral facilities are also greatly necessary to ensure non-binary people's experiences with toilet facilities are one of comfort," the charity said, according to the BBC.
Badenoch has also been involved with ensuring that NHS hospital patients are allowed to request single-sex wards and that transgender-identifying patients can be placed in separate rooms.
"This is following our work last week limiting the use of mixed-sex wards in the NHS and demonstrates how this government is committed to ensuring single-sex spaces are protected for all," Badenoch said at the time of the announcement regarding the toilets.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to [email protected]
