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In an attempt to avoid marginalising people with both kinds of genitals, Brighton council is planning a “gender neutral” public toilet for men, women and anyone surgically, medically or mentally stuck halfway between.
The idea will see a newly refurbished seafront toilet facility described as being gender neutral and labelled with images of a man, woman and child on its doors, in a move designed to keep the area’s burgeoning transgender population happy and to avoid the very modern crime of labeling people as belonging to one particular group.
It has, as you might expect, already been labeled as political correctness going mad. Local councillor Lynda Hyde said: “This does seem to be a case of unnecessary bureaucracy and political correctness. Local residents, particularly women with children, would much prefer to use separate facilities as apart from anything else, it is safer.” [Telegraph]
Image credit: Toilet sign from Shutterstock
I can’t imagine many women wanting to go into the toilet once all the men have pissed all over the floor.
Oh believe me, men aren’t the only ones that do that.
I can’t imagine how women can miss?
I was a cleaner at my uni, boys have piss splashes everywhere yeah, but girls? Girls are fucking gross. Underwear and tampons and half eaten chickens everywhere!
They hover.
I’ve seen womens toilets and they’re the second worst, just beaten by the gays.
well I dont want to use the toilet after some other men have pissed on the floor either. Why should that be any different?
My country has lost the plot. Pity that all this madness is happening in Brighton, because like Hove, it’s a nice place full of nice people, if you know your way around. All the mad state/council controlled madness starts there too alas. I had to deal with their repressive parking system, most expensive in the UK along with equally lefty Oxford, and woe behold you park and try to earn a living and get a fine, you will be dragged through the courts for years causing much stress.
It’s no wonder the Americans want to keep their guns, once this madness spreads to their nation, many will want to fight back. (If you follow the comments on the mainstream press, most of those commenting on the collapse of common sense and discipline in the UK are from more dignified nations or areas of the world, such as Australia, New Zeeland, US etc.)
What is VERY worrying is how absolutely threatening the councils are when you challenge them or their employees. Yesterday, we visited a recycling tip in Oxford with much trash left over from my late father’s home. We had boxes of thousands of tiny items. I asked the tip workers standing around if it was ok for me to tip our rubbish into the neutral bin (I forget the exact term for the bin) and despite telling them I had already spent ages there getting rid of much else, and was in a hurry for a family get together, they refused to let me, so we have boxes of junk in the car with nowhere to take it! The issue is, we pay these people, so they should do the sorting, NOT us! Their attitude is appalling and makes you feel small and almost criminal. They don’t give a damn! And that ladies and gentlemen is what will happen nationally if this sort of behaviour is not nipped in the bud pronto.
And yes, all these matters are related.
so you got a parking fine presumably because you contravened the rules?
so you don’t understand the job description of some tip worker?
i think you need to chill out a bit, this is hardly broken britain. violent crime and substance misuse – yes. some dude getting a parking fine and having to sort his own rubbish out…hmmm less so.
iPity the fools too!
“All this madness in Brighton” – charming. I’m sure you’re happy though in whatever boring concrete grey town you live.
And I’m sorry but you complaint about rubbish sorting is complete nonsense. Nobody is paid to sort your rubbish, they are paid to run the tip, which they probably do just fine. You turning up with boxes of junk and expecting them to sort it because you’re too lazy and bone idle to do it yourself is arrogance of the highest order.
Sorry, this is 2013. In some Scandinavian nations (whose standard of living is way beyond ours), you feed your trash and food waste into a slide built into your house that empties into a container outside, that is subsequently collected and sorted on site. Here in dystopian Britain, we now have at least 3 or 4 large ugly plastic containers to be stored either in our previously pretty back gardens, or out in the front of our previously nice tidy streets. Just visit any previously pretty old town in the UK, and the streets look terrible now one or twice a week.
Oh, and I live in a very pretty area, although it is blighted twice a week because we have to put a large black plastic box of newspapers/magazines/junk mail (latter not requested) outside on one day, and on another, the wheely bin.
I stand by my comments. And yes, I recycle, but am too busy working to spend what would take at least a day to sort through waste. Not my job! That is what council tax is for.
So sad that young people have been taken in by this repressive socialist crap. Ironic, I’m an avid environmentalist, but of the old school type who believes in quality of life too.
Perhaps you should write to your local council and request they double your council tax to pay for the services you desire.
your uphill struggle through dysopian britain and his recycling woes sure would make a smashing film. you travel across Europe advocating pneumatic refuse collection and at the end you retire in Sweden and bathe in its clean streets and high taxes.
maybe you could apply for arts council funding to make the film, sounds like you’d be a deserving recipient.
FWIW, my university recently created a gender neutral toilet at the SU and it was a very popular move. It’s a fairly liberal campus though, so YMMV
DNU
See, this is what you get when you get your news from the Torygraph. This is the exact opposite of unnecessary bureaucracy. For many toilets, all you do to make them gender neutral is take the signs down. This is standard in many countries around the world, where toilets are cubicles. I once stayed at a Youth Hostel in Germany, where they had put in doors marked ‘male’ and ‘female’ under pressure from English tourists who weren’t comfortable with the ungendered toilets. Both doors led into the same room, just on opposite ends. Unless you have urinals (and who wants to piss standing right up next to someone else, anyway), it doesn’t make sense to worry about these things.
It seems to have passed most people by that toilets on planes and trains are also gender neutral, as well as (presumably) the toilets in your own home. Given that a gender neutral toilet is simply a collection of cubicles with a communal sink area I don’t see the issue.
Totally unnecessary!
Is giz turning into the daily fail? Next thing you know, there will be a post ranting that only dirty hippies worry about killing innocent civilians. Just like the post that was up last night (I hope you took it down because you saw just how offensive it was, btw).
Well, if it helps you are probably not the only one.
What was the article taken down?
Yes, I’ve always taken offence to being labeled a man. Must report it to someone.
Why the surprise and the reaction? Brighton is a very liberal City, and 99% of its residents are fine with that, including me.
If you don’t like it, take yourself to Skegness instead. Brighton is not the place for people that get upset over things like this.
I don’t think Gary, the author of the piece, was saying he was against it…
Well he mocks it, Kat, and people don’t usually mock things they approve of.
Mocking? It’s called wit, and we use it in most of our stories. We’re a pretty liberal site, so I don’t think we’re in danger of anyone thinking we’re against this move.
For the record, Gary lived in Brighton for years before moving to the wilds of Scotland, and to my knowledge he still owns a place down there.
I said “if” you don’t like it.
Liberal site….damn, the shame of it, I’ve been contributing to a liberal site… I’ll be reading The Guardian next and wearing Peruvian hand-knitted slippers
It’ll be an allotment and mild obsession with Nigel Slater next!
No to Nigel Slater but my wife’s got an allotment! (I know
)
BUGGER THAT!
been to a nightclub before with same gender neutral toilets a few times.
everyone seemed to get on with it OK. it’s not a terrible idea but wouldn’t work across the board