What should replace the term "unisex washrooms"?

It means I don’t have to go looking for a men’s room, just wait for whoever is in there to come out.

Unisex bathrooms don’t have urinals. They just have toilets in stalls.

I just edited the OP @zenvelo

Why not “washrooms”? Does it really need an adjective?

I think the term is just fine; it says what it is. The ones I’ve seen are single stall toilets so far and they make sense. What do you think they should be called, ” No rapists or perverts allowed” toilets? Another term could be “All Gender” toilets but I don’t see a real difference in that.

“Restroom.”

“Lavatory.”

WC

I’ve seen “gender-inclusive lavatories” before.

I’ve also seen “All Gender Toilets.”

“The People’s Pissoir” or “The People’s Room”

“Restroom”

At one bar in Harvard Square, the sign says “Either or”.

Or, as in Europe “Toilets.”

But I don’t get the feeling it’s the name you care about @Flo but the concept whatever it’s called.

Loo for Any Who. I must have been away too long. I’ve never heard of this.

I like the either or, @dxs .
Maybe All Inclusive?
Innies & Outies?

Gender Neutral Toilets.

Standorsit Restrooms.

Lou (Loo) & Louise (Loo-wees)

Just “RESTROOM.”

Since the question changed after I answered it, I would agree with @kritiper. There are a host of gender neutral terms to describe a bathroom/toilet/washroom/restroom/outhouse/banos/W.C./Loo/crapper.

It’s really a matter of how polite one wishes to be.

America rarely labels a room a washroom, nor do we use the term verbally much. We say ladies room, men’s room, bathroom, or restroom. Unisex restroom or unisex washroom is just fine with me.

I picture either the room being a one person at time single bathroom, or a bathroom with multiple stalls and no open urinals. I’ve only seen unisex single rooms.

We just say toilets. Ladies/Mens/Unisex toilets.

I’m more used to just hearing unisex and.or family restroom or bathroom myself.

The ones I’ve seen on the turnpike are labeled “family” and not only are they single occupancy, but considerably larger and with a fold down changing table. I think that makes a whole lot of sense since its not only mothers caring for infants . It’s fathers as well and this gives them a nice clean place for diaper changes. I mean, you cant very well have a man trying to deal with diapering his baby in the typical mens room (the smell alone could knock the kid over) and it avoids the awkwardness of having him going into the ladies room.

It puzzles me why they didn’t do something this sensible years ago.

How about “single use washrooms”, just to make sure that no one misunderstands it to mean the multiple stalled ones, separate for men, and women are no longer separate, no longer labelled as such, so that the men can go to what used to be labelled “women” and women can go to what used to be labelled “men”. People were calling them asking “_What ??? They had to come out and clarify that is not what they meant by “unisex”.

@flo – single use implies that one person uses it, and it has to be destroyed. Like a single use paper towel, or a single use hair dye.

@elbanditoroso In theory “Single use” does mean throw out after use, but if we heard “single use washrooms” on a practical level I don’t think any of us would conclude a washroom that has to be destroyed. But still it is not the best term. How about single room washrooms”?

I don’t know what the problem is with the simple one-word designation of FAMILY.

The very first time i encountered it, i knew immediately that it was definitely NOT a multi-stall situation but a single room. (Obviously, it was a multi-purpose single room for those who needed to deal with the bathroom needs of very young children of either gender.)

But, as such, it was available for anyone needing or desiring a single room on a first come basis.

Its really not that complicated to understand the implications of that one simple word FAMILY. No guesswork needed.

The family area in the Y I belonged to in FL was an open locker room where people knew it was all genders and ages walking through there, and within the family area there were 3 single bathrooms and shower/changing rooms that were rather large that also were suitable for handicap.

The thing is, it’s not about seeing a picture or video of those rooms or coming across them, at all. If you look at my posts, it’s about reading about them and hearing about them.

@flo So what does “unisex” mean to you when you read it or hear it?

@janbb I just have to verify what the speaker or writer is thinking of. I just have to ask “What are you referring to? The single room like we all have at home or the multiple stalled ones?” It’s not what it means to me, but what they mean.

I think it means either a single stall or a multi-stall that can be used by either sex and you have to see them to see which it is. Unisex doesn’t define the number of stalls.

To my understanding, a unisex bathroom is one that can be used by both sexes. It can happen in many ways. I can think of at least 3 that I’ve seen:
1) One-toilet, one-sink bathroom. On the door to the bathroom there’s a sign with both a man and a woman separated by a divider.
2) Multi-stall bathroom that any sex can enter. The sign reads something along the lines of “any sex” (As stated earlier in the thread, I’ve seen “either or”).
3) Multi-stall bathroom with a slider on the door. When you enter the bathroom, you slide the slider from “vacant” to “men” or “women”, based on your sex. You switch it back to “vacant” when you leave.

@dxs Have you in real life come across “Multi-stall bathroom that any sex can enter”? Not me. And any place that would have one of those is looking for problems.

@flo : I have, in NYC. The stalls were multi -gender, the sinks were communal.

@flo That is beginning to be a trend; I’m surprised you are unaware of it.

@flo Yep. I love them and wish all bathrooms were like that. Especially when you’re waiting for the one-stall men’s room while the one-stall chick’s room is completely vacant.

But what about the problem I was referring to in m last post?

@dxs But if there are multi stall for males s and multi stall for women room, you add one single room for multi purposes, and there you go, problem of waiting is solved.

… @dxs if there is only one single room for women one single toilet room for men, (which I misread our last post) all they have to do regarding waiting in line is, remove the labels “men” “women”, or whatever alternatives, and just have “Toilet” or alternatives.

@flo (regarding your first post): Installing a bathroom is no easy task and requires a good deal of money.
@flo (regarding your second post): I know, that’s why it bothers me.

I recently saw a bathroom door on a convenience store bathroom, and it had the image of a lady with the image of a man, and under that, it said “Restroom.”

@flo In America we don’t use “toilet” to refer to a bathroom. I don’t mean no one uses it, but it’s not used in mixed company really nor written on the wall to refer to bathrooms in public places. I’ve seen what @jca just mentioned. A man and woman figure and restroom below. Sometimes it doesn’t even say restroom.

@dxs Yes it is not an easy task and it costs money to add a toilet but the all purpose Toilet, (a term that doesn’t say anything about taking a bath or resting on a couch or something like that @JLeslie) Restroom, Bathroom is there already, problem solved. I was just referring to it as an option.
@jca There, no problem.

But what about the problem I was referring to?

@flo I’m lost. Are the unisex bathrooms you are concerned about multi-stall?

@flo: What problem are you talking about?

The biggest problem solver is to get rid of gender in bathrooms altogether. All it takes is the removal of two signs.

At our congregation, some people were reluctant to get rid of the men’s room and women’s room signage so there is a sign in the middle that says people should use whichever bathroom is most comfortable for them. They are multi-stall; I haven’t been violated yet.

^^A congregation is not a bathroom on the street. I was at The Villages in FL last week and a block from the town square are public restrooms. Sometimes very few people, if any, are in the area of the bathrooms. I did a “check” before pulling down my pants that I felt comfortable. I still felt it was vulnerable. Mind you, they are marked men and women, so that doesn’t help, but I would be wary if a man was in there even if he was “allowed” in there. Not so much if it were a busy bathroom, men come in to bathrooms with their young daughters sometimes and that doesn’t faze me in the least. But, just like getting into an elevator with a man, sometimes my antenna is up.

What do criminals (sex related or not) say is there is less of? Places with more chances of finding vulnerable potential victims. That’s the same way someone who wants no salt or gravel on icy pathways potentential victims.

@JLeslie I wouldn’t recommend anyone (men included ) to use the ones that you described unless there are at least a few of unrelated people around.

Is anyone else terribly confused as to what exactly the problem is here?

@Seek I think some here are very frightened of being raped or worse by transgender persons coming into “their” multistall bathrooms and that somehow calling them something else will solve the problem. But I may be way off the mark here too.

@Seek: I’m confused, too. It started out about the term and now it’s “don’t use the unisex room.”

@janbb I wrote criminals. Criminals can be any gender.

@Seek, I really have no idea.

I think part of the problem stems from the idea that culturally there will be no more “gatekeepers” on bathrooms, locker rooms and other gender-specific segregated areas. Currently – at least as far as I have seen – there is a strong social taboo against men walking into women’s rest rooms and locker rooms. We simply don’t do it. We would tend to call out and prevent other men from doing it, whether deliberately or by accident.

If the current social prohibitions vanish, then anyone can call themselves anything they want and go anywhere they want. That causes some people problems, and some of the concerns seem quite legitimate to me.

@janbb I can’t imagine a thinking person being afraid of an actual transgender person. But as we all know not all people rely heavily on “thinking”, obviously, and who knows what irrational folks might be afraid of. That doesn’t make the fear illegitimate. However, you seem to make the assumption that “only a man changing gender to become a woman” would be likely to enter a women’s room. If a person who looks like a man can walk into a women’s room without a single challenge or raised eyebrow, then why couldn’t a fully heterosexual man do the same thing? This is a real fear of real people using actual thought. It seems like a reasonable concern to me. Aside from the fear of perverts, voyeurs and rapists, which are legitimate enough, it’s the idea of changing social norms, rules and customs with no guidebook. People are not always what they seem to be or what they say they are.

I’m not afraid of transgender or transvestites or transsexuals, being in the bathrooms with me. I’m only worried about violent criminals. I certainly don’t think trans people are more likely to be criminals. I do think men are more likely to hurt me than women. I don’t think most men are criminals or violent, but certain situations I’d rather not take a risk with a man being present.

I know two women that were raped in Women Only restrooms. Really, rapists and violent criminals are not necessarily going to be bound the rules that say men should not enter the Ladies room. For some, apparently, the little skirted picture is just marketing.

@canidmajor I was thinking something similar. Are criminals really going to stay out of a bathroom because it is labeled “Women” if they are intent on harm? And the truth is that more transgender people have suffered violence by going into a bathroom that is right for their biological organs but not how they present themselves.

I do understand the discomfort with this issue (although I wish that @Flo had asked the question in a way that was clearer) but I think we have to look at it more objectively.

In an ideal world, single stall “Gender Neutral” toilets would be available as well as multi-stall single sex bathrooms but that isn’t likely to happen.

@janbb I’ve written about this before, but maybe I’m being too subtle, or just not explaining what I mean.

The problem is not so much that “bad men won’t be deterred by a sign”. We already understand that because of the abject and total failure of “Gun Free Zone” signs. (Don’t worry, I’m not going any further than that sentence on that topic.)

The point is the normalization of men entering rest rooms and locker rooms formerly reserved to women. Right now if I saw a man enter a women’s room I would know “there’s something wrong there; he doesn’t belong in that area”. And while I might not and other onlookers may not physically attempt to stop him we would all know “he’s breaking the norm”. This is something to remember; his face is one to remember; he’s not respecting boundaries properly. That’s a man who bears watching and remembering. We might even warn off other women from entering, and they would take that caution.

As things stand now, “a man” entering a women’s restroom or locker room is already assumed to be ‘bad’ or ‘off’ because of that refusal to obey the societal norm. (Unfortunately, that’s what causes the problems that trans-gendered people now have to deal with; I get that.)

When “anything goes”, then “a man entering a private room with one or more women – or girls” is nothing remarkable. In addition, women would be put in an awkward position because it would seem to be “unseemly” or “prejudiced” of them to refuse to enter or to leave while he was inside.

As noted many times, “the transgendered” are not the problem, I think. It’s those who do bad things under the cover of normalcy.

The other problem that I see, and it’s a much more generalized one, is “What are the numbers?” We seem to be demanding huge changes for what appear to be outliers in society. What is the percentage of people undergoing gender transformation who can’t at least pass as the gender that they want to assume?

@CWOTUS – all of them, at the onset. Many counselors recommend living for a period of time as opposite sex before any clinical changes (hormones or surgery) are taken on.

At what point are you going to tell a trans woman it’s OK to go into the ladies’ room lest she get beaten senseless by the same people who do this ?

Personally, I’d be perfectly happy if they’d just remove the signs from the doors and let people pee wherever there’s an open stall.

@CWOTUS: Mansplaining “normal” to us really isn’t the point. Of course the bad guys don’t do this stuff with a likely audience, and the point of all this, as has been said a number of times, is to basically make the disapproval of trans people justifiable. An evil man with nefarious intent, well-disguised as a woman, could enter the bathroom without your alarm bells going off.
We got your point. We weren’t talking about a random bathroom free-for-all, but avoiding exactly the thing that @Seek posted.
The idea that people deserve to be punished for being a bit harmlessly different is anathema to most of us.

I guess what I meant was “what is the percentage of those people” compared to the general population. I’m not saying “the hell with them; they should stay at home, then”. I’m trying to get a handle on the magnitude of the problem as if I have any influence on the way it will be handled; I get that I don’t.

Oh great, I’ve been called out for mansplaining! How cute. Adorable. You may have understood what I’ve said, but you seem to have no idea of the magnitude of social upheaval you expect to achieve – at others’ cost, natch – to achieve dubious results for how many people is what I’m asking. And you clearly do not understand the value of certain social norms.

It’s as if, because of some kid’s peanut allergy, we now have to burn the entire peanut crop and stop using peanuts from coast to coast. That’s coming, I have no doubt.

Your assumption that because I don’t necessarily approve “X” then I must approve “Y”, @canidmajor, is a huge logical fallacy. But I’m sure you already knew that.

I hardly think trans* people can simply avoid the call of nature like people can avoid allergens.

@canidmajor You personally know two women who were taped in public restrooms? Well shit, I feel all sorts of justified now. I did anyway, it seems obvious it’s a vulnerable place for women. I’m pretty sure moms worry about their young sons too when they go by themselves to the bathroom.

I’m more worried about having to leave the young son outside the restroom because people have irrational fears.

@Seek I don’t think anyone minds when a mom brings their son into the women’s room.

Except that the law in North Carolina says any child over seven is on his own. Regardless of disability, physical need, autism, etc.

^^Well, that’s just stupid.

@Seek: You live in Florida, right?

Yes.
What’s your point? Do people in North Carolina not have children? Do they not have disabled family members who need assistance with medical equipment to use the toilet? Do they not have the legitimate fear that some homophobic asshat will try to fix them at the end of their fists?

@Seek: Yes they do have children, I was referring to your comment above about having to leave “the young son” which I thought you were referring to your young son. I’m dealing with a family issue right now and really not into an internet argument.

I usually make points on this site from my own point of view, because, well, I’m not really qualified to talk about other peoples’ points of view. Still, I may visit North Carolina, or end up there on a layover, or whatever, and then the stupid bullshit law that should never have happened would apply to me directly.

That’s besides the fact that my governor is Voldemort, and is basically trying to copypasta every bad law in the country before we jettison him.

I saw the other day they just signed a bill making it no longer illegal to shack up in Florida. I thought of you and the discussion from the other day.

@CWOTUS and @JLeslie I see fabulous straight forward thinking in your posts.

The rest of you I’m guessing you go out of your way to use alley ways instead of well lit streets, because all the quote unquoute “arguments” you posted in this thread? That is If a criminal is going to do something to me he wouldn’t be prevented by street lights etc. m Not.

Note: again criminals come in all forms, anyone can be a victim of crime.

@janbb “Are criminals really going to stay out of a bathroom because it is labeled “Women” if they are intent on harm?” By that logic you would have no such thing as preventative measures, crime minimizing measures of any kind, in any field of life anywhere, ever.

@janbb _“In an ideal world, single stall “Gender Neutral” toilets would be available as well as multi-stall single sex bathrooms but that isn’t likely to happen.” It has already happened, there are places with those.

@flo – If the alleyway is a more convenient route to my destination, I’ll absolutely use it. Duh.

@flo Yes, but I meant everywhere.

@Seek Good for you.
@janbb It has started. Everywhere can’t happen overnight.
By the way, some criminals are transexuals just like some criminals are non-transexuals it’s neither here nor there.

@flo And some criminals are women so you’re not really safe anywhere.

@janbb It’s something like 80% of violent crimes are committed by men. Rape is over 95% committed by men.

The experts now advise to tell children if they are lost, or separated from the adult who was watching them, to find a woman. In the old days they used to say find someone in a uniform or an employee. Women are much less likely to hurt other people or children (not that children aren’t people) compared to men.

@JLeslie Thank you. Or an elderly person or a handicapped person…

@janbb “And some criminals are women so you’re not really safe anywhere.”
And some criminals do things on a well lit street too, does that mean you should avoid well lit streets? No, by using well lit streets you minimize the chances by tons.

@Seek‘s You realize you last post says:No I’m not as bright as you give me credit for.?

Actually, I grew up in a big city, and alleyways are common routes to many places. I couldn’t even get to some of my favourite places here in the Tampa/St. Pete area without making use of an alley or two.

It’s not my fault you’re categorically afraid of the non-street space inbetween buildings.

@Seek From now on I’ll use the least amount of smarts. I’ll put my hand on the hot stove, just so I won’t be callled a coward and I’ll use dark alley ways as much as possible so I can help as many criminals as posssible.”

I feel like this thread is one whole strand of confusion and misunderstanding.

Most of @flo‘s questions turn out that way.

I’m confused right now.

NoSex restrooms?

Single washrooms?