A women’s rights advocate has argued at a London theater over the gender-inclusive toilets that she claimed made her feel “very uncomfortable”.
The all-gender toilet at the Lyric Hammersmith in west London has five urinals and a cubicle.
Feminist journalist and author Joan Smith was shocked by the “lack of privacy for myself and any man who might enter” when she visited on Tuesday.
The theater insisted the toilets were installed “as part of our strategy for inclusion and equality” and said it also offers gender-specific and privately accessible toilets.
Ms. Smith, a member of the Sex Matters advisory group, used the toilets during an interview for the theater production of Accidental Death of an Anarchist.
Joan Smith tweeted this photo of the ‘all gender’ toilets at the Lyric Hammersmith on Tuesday
She said she didn’t have enough time to find a gender-specific toilet elsewhere in the building, so she “reluctantly” used the “all-gender” toilet behind the main bar.
Mrs Smith told the Daily telegram: ‘I was confronted with five urinals that I had to pass to get to one lockable cubicle.
“I felt incredibly uncomfortable about the lack of privacy for myself and any man who would enter.
‘Indeed, a man came in as I was about to leave, looked very embarrassed and left without using the urinals.
“I don’t want to see a man’s penis in public and I doubt many men want to expose themselves in this way.”
Ms Smith also tweeted a photo of the toilet door which reads: ‘Loos – all genders welcome’
Ms Smith, who has now written to theater and local MP Andy Slaughter, added: “There are plenty of religious women who can’t be in a private space with men.”
She tweeted about the toilets on Tuesday, saying, “Terrible ‘public’ toilets at @LyricHammer.” Five urinals and one cubicle for women? Who actually wants this?’
Commenting on the post, soprano singer Elizabeth Atherton said, “Are women expected to line up with men for the one booth with their willies out? Or has a way been discovered in which women can also use urinals…?’
Another Twitter user, Ellen Highwater added, “I don’t care how good the productions are, I don’t subject myself to that.”
But a third, Alice King, tweeted: ‘I went there recently and this is NOT representative of the two sets of toilets I used (with my young children) – this tweet is misleading and the Lyric is a great place with a great community programs.’
The Lyric Hammersmith said the toilets were ‘part of our strategy for inclusion and equality’
Ms Smith also posted a photo of the toilet door with the words ‘Loos – All Gender Welcome’ over a photo of a urinal marked ‘x5’ and a toilet marked ‘x1’.
A spokesperson for the Lyric Hammersmith said: ‘The Lyric Hammersmith Theater is inclusive and welcoming to all. We provide a range of toilet facilities to meet the needs of all persons using our building.
“These include gender-specific, all-gender, privately accessible, and changing areas. Our all-gender toilets were introduced in 2018 as part of our strategy for inclusion and equality.”
Last July, Equality Minister Kemi Badenoch outlined plans to ensure that all new offices, schools, hospitals and shops must have separate segregated toilets.
Gender neutral toilets at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon last year
The government said it wanted to avoid building utility buildings with “universal” toilets to end “forced sharing of spaces”.
The plans include changes to building and planning regulations to anchor separate stalls in new buildings and require partition walls in current unisex facilities.
It came after Ms Badenoch warned that some pupils are not using the toilet during school hours because they only have access to gender-neutral toilets.
Last April, parents were outraged after a £7 million children’s playground in Brentwood, Essex, was fitted with gender-neutral toilets.
A sign on the toilet door of the public house at Tredegar House in Newport, South Wales reads: ‘Gender neutral toilets. Alternative toilet facilities are available at the main car park’
Also last year, new guidelines told officials to allow people who identify as transgender to use any gender toilet they want.
The National Trust has also been accused of pursuing a ‘wake up’ agenda following the introduction of gender-neutral toilets at Tredegar House in Newport, South Wales, when a woman entered to find a man urinating without the door locked.
The Old Vic theater scrapped its men’s and women’s toilets in October 2019, replacing them with ‘self-selection’ facilities that can be used by both sexes.
In 2021, former community secretary Robert Jenrick presented plans to rewrite planning regulations in favor of single-sex facilities.
Women’s rights groups have long argued that they are “disadvantaged” by gender-neutral toilets that contain both urinals and cubicles.