The differentiation between male and female toilets posited on a binary excludes a whole spectrum of gender identities. Which toilet do they use? Most times, they get excluded from either. Terry Kogan – gay and transgender politics activist, and Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of Utah – proposes the adoption of all-gender, multiuser facilities that ensure privacy and safety to all restroom users without discrimination. He believes that the “architectural space of the sexseparated restroom is an unchanging, unchallenged constant at the heart of the controversy” which needs to be addressed architecturally as well as legally. Kogan discusses the legal battle between transgender plaintiffs along with the US Department of Justice under the Obama administration (the “Obama DOJ”) and civil rights groups, and the state plaintiffs. He argues that even though the Obama DOJ was in favor of protecting the rights of transgender people, they were themselves limited by endorsing sex-segregated restrooms, but allowed access based on gender identity. However, this approach disregarded the nonbinary nature of gender identity and the lack of safe options for certain individuals. Kogan argues for a change in envisioning the architectural space of apublic toilet which remains “cloaked in an ideology inherited from the late nineteenth century, a vision that influences how our society views the very identities of women and men when they enter the public realm.” He invokes the deep-seated concern of Victorian modesty where women should not be viewed by men with regard to any aspect of toilet use as the main reason behind normalizing sex-segregated toilets.
Activists and lawyers alike have insisted that the right to access restrooms is fundamental to the fight for equality in the transgender community. Bagagli, et al. argue that:
“The attempts, whether judicial or informal, to restrict the use of restrooms according to the users’ gender identities or expressions should therefore be seen as ways of regulating and perpetuating the cisnormative binarism of gender. In this respect, the expulsion and embarrassment of transgender people in restrooms must be … combated to guarantee equity of rights desirable in a democratic and plural society that respects human dignity.”
Passed in 2013, the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) aimed to ban discrimination in all aspects of life, including housing and employment, on any possible biases such as race, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The opponents of this ordinance sought to repeal them by specifically targeting provisions related to sexual orientation and gender identity.
The assumption that gendered and enclosed spaces are effective in preventing gender-specific violence does not hold true entirely. Though enclosed and segregated public restrooms are away from the public eye, perpetrators who want to sexually assault disregard the signage on the door. Another misconception is the “bathroom predator” myth, that making restrooms accessible to transgender persons or those not conforming to any gender increases the threat of sexual assault or predatory behaviour. There is no evidence supporting the claims of the bathroom predator myth, which reinforces the hierarchies of cisgender versus transgender. Numerous other surveys and studies have debunked this myth. The rise of this myth stemmed from an opposition by cisgender individuals to the growing public awareness of transgender rights in modern times and leads to a further spread of fear and misinformation. On the other hand, the ones actually vulnerable to verbal and visual assault in public restrooms are those who identify as transgender or those who are perceived as gender nonconforming. Often, such violence against them is rendered invisible or goes unreported.
On April 12, 2023, the Supreme Court of India released a statement on having constructed nine universal restrooms in the main and additional buildings of the court. This was part of the broader agenda of the Supreme Court to ensure inclusive infrastructure and “sexuality sensitisation,” in which the court has also made provisions for lawyers to mention their preferred pronouns while appearing for hearings or filing documents. The move is expected to ensure that transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming individuals have equal opportunity to express themselves without any prejudice. By serving as an example itself, the Supreme Court sets precedence for state parties to follow suit.
Prior to that in 2021 the Delhi government had mandated that all its departments, offices, district authorities, municipal corporations, state-run companies, and the Delhi police have separate and exclusive restrooms for transgender persons. There are few fragmented instances of institutions in India that have provided gender-neutral toilets such as Nalsar Law School Hyderabad; Martyr Tukaram Omble Garden at Aarey, Mumbai; Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai; and IIT Delhi. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched the Aspirational Public Toilets scheme in September 2022 which incorporates smart technology and combines public amenities such as ATMs with public toilets to enhance accessibility, safety, and hygiene. Aspirational toilets in Maharashtra are equipped with automatic flushing systems and are being imagined as central to public spaces such as bus stops, sidewalks, and so on. Pink Toilets for women within the purview of this scheme are equipped with sanitary napkin vending machines, incinerators to burn sanitary napkins, designated areas for breastfeeding mothers, bathing and changing rooms, and resting spaces with seating arrangements.
Public toilets, acting as both forbidden spaces and repositories of societal beliefs, are integral to understanding the unconscious social dynamics surrounding sex and gender. In her book, Queering Bathrooms, Sheila Cavanagh (2010) argues that public restrooms play a role in defining traditional notions of masculinity and femininity, as well as shaping ideas about gender and sexuality. The book uses hundred interviews with LGBTQIA+ and intersex individuals to explore how queer and transgender communities challenge the fixed gender norms and heteronormative nature of public bathrooms. Cavanagh argues that the cultural and societal regulation of gender and sexuality is closely connected to the politics of bodily waste, which governs the demand for separate toilets for different genders. Redding problematises this separateness and argues that it is a deep-seated societal disgust for the nonnormative bodies that demand separate provision of toilets for the transgender. Calling out the “disgust,” Redding asks for a sensitivity to the basic needs of the marginalized and reconsider separateness. Even though Redding does not make a specific case for multiuser public toilets, their insistence to reconsider separateness, which may be “different for different people at the same time” emphasises the need for integrating choice.
In conclusion, we understand that accessibility to public toilets is not equally distributed for all sections of society and embracing feminism is not just advocating for gender equality, but recognizing its fundamental role in shaping these spaces. Feminist principles for public toilet design, discussed ahead, are crucial for incorporating into the design and management of public toilets to ensure safe and accessible environments for everyone.
Excerpted with permission fromIncloosive: Feminist Toilet Architecture, Sonal Mithal and Priyanka Awatramani, CEPT University Press.
