The government’s proposal to make single-sex toilets mandatory in new bars, restaurants, offices, and shopping centres is a “distraction technique that targets trans people”, a drag queen has said.
Crystal, a Canadian-British drag performer who featured on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, told Sky News the legislation is to distract people from a “flailing government”.
“I don’t think this policy will do anything to protect anyone. There’s no evidence to suggest that mixed bathrooms are inherently more unsafe than sex-segregated ones,” the 38-year-old said.
“Meanwhile, there’s a lot of compelling evidence that shows that lots of people are made more unsafe by having only sex-segregated toilets.
“People like trans teenagers, but I’m also thinking about cis[gender] people who are gender non-conforming, who don’t necessarily pass as the gender they were assigned at birth,” he added.
“These are the people who are going to suffer when we start really policing people’s sex before they go to the toilet.”
Crystal also said that providing both single-sex and gender-neutral toilets is “a fantastic solution” and focusing on single-sex toilets only is “a false thing to be chasing after”.
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“Kemi Badenoch, in this bill, says this is about protecting the privacy and dignity of women. I’m not sure how much more privacy and dignity someone needs than a locked and closed cubicle door.
“I don’t think there’s any sex-based right to the privacy of washing your hands away from a man.
“We live in a world that is non-sex segregated. We sit on trains next to each other. We sit in the theatre next to each other. We sit on the Tube next to each other.
“It’s a non-issue,” he added.
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But writer Jean Hatchet said that women “have to defend” single-sex toilets.
“This is about women. It’s not about how people choose to identify. It’s about the needs of women,” she said.
“Women and men use toilets differently, and the way men use toilets, unfortunately, means that women aren’t able to use those spaces in the same way. We have to sit on wet toilet seats.
“This is not acceptable but that disregards the actual safety aspect of the installation of spy cameras which can be collected later.
“This happens, this is the world that women live in,” she said.
The government announced this week that new buildings, as well as premises that undergo a material change of use, will be legally required to provide separate toilets for men and women under the proposed legislation.
Self-contained toilets for both sexes may be provided in addition to single-sex toilets, or if there isn’t enough space.
Care homes, hotels, schools, cells in custodial facilities, and buildings used for early years provision are all exempt from the proposed legislation.
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Minister for women and equalities Kemi Badenoch claimed the legislation will end “the rise of so-called ‘gender-neutral’ mixed sex toilet spaces, which deny privacy and dignity to both men and women”.
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She added that the proposals “will create better provision for women so that our particular biological, health and sanitary needs are met.”
