User:M4M3M2M1/Public toilet

Article Evaluation

The subsection "social hierarchies (access for women), under the section "Equality of Access," presents women as not having access to public washrooms prior to the 20th century due to their restriction from the public sphere. This is misleading, since it makes it seem as though this has been the state of things for time immemorial.

[Lines for women's toilets are longer than men's. Women take up to 2.3 times longer in the toilet. Where there are the same number of toilets for males and females, this will result in longer line in and out of the facilities. The reasons women take longer include pregnancy, managing menstruation, health conditions (such as cystitis), clothing design and helping others. Women are more likely to be accompanied by children, disabled or older people.] Remove from lead - add to "Potty Parity" discussion

Should lead include short blurb on history? access?

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Health problems from lack of public toilets

A 2015 study by the National Center for Transgender Equality found that 8% of transgender American reported having developed urinary tract infections, kidney infections, and other kidney-related problems as a result of avoiding, or not being granted access to, the facilities. In another survey, the group DC Trans Coalition found that 54% of its respondents (located in Washington, DC) reported physical problem from avoiding using public toilets, such as dehydration, kidney infections, and urinary tract infections.

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Equality of access
initial blurb - could be under subsection called class?

Access for women

THIS NEEDS CLARIFYING AND ELABORATING

Access for African-American people (Racial Segregation)

After slavery ended in the United States, southern states attempted to replicate its social economic oppression by passing laws requiring that blacks and whites be separated in all public and private venues. Racial segregation included public toilets, mandated by Jim Crow laws prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 'Justifications' provided for segregated facilities included "protection of a certain group, privacy, cleanliness, and morality.” This segregation imposed significant restrictions on the lives of African-Americans. Strategies to keep African-Americans out of sight included the "basement solution" which involved locating public toilets for black people in the basement next to janitor supply rooms. Black workers often had to walk long distances to get to the toilets they were assigned.

Those who were able to afford cars could avoid the indignities of segregated trains and buses, but they faced the difficulty of finding a public toilet they were allowed to use. Courtland Milloy of the Washington Post recalled that on cross-country roadtrips in the 1950s his parents were reluctant to stop the car to allow the children to relieve themselves – it just wasn't safe. One solution to this was to carry a portable toilet (a sort of bucket-like arrangement) in the trunk of the car. This treatment led to the creation of The Negro Motorist Green Book, an annually updated guidebook. Once the traveler found the correct "colored restroom", it could serve "as a respite from the insults of the white world", akin to what is now called safe space.

Following the 1941 executive order which prohibited “discrimination in the employment of workers in defence industries or government,” white women refused to share bathrooms with black women throughout the South. Engaging in numerous labor strikes and walkouts against Fair Employment Practice Committee politics, they erroneously claimed that racial integration would cause them to catch syphilis from toilet seats. Similar arguments equating equal access to restrooms with contracting venereal diseases were made by white women after the 1954 court ruling against segregated public schools which led to the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School.

Samuel Younge Jr., then a student at Tuskegee Institute, was murdered in 1966 after trying to use a "whites-only" restroom. He was the first black college student to be killed for his actions supporting the Civil Rights Movement.

Access for people with disabilities

Public toilets have frequently been inaccessible to people with disabilities. In the United States, all public toilets in federal buildings were required to be accessible to people with disabilities by the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968. These requirements were extended to all public buildings by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Access for transgender and gender non-conforming people

Access to public toilets for transgender and gender non-conforming people is often contested. In the United States, various bathroom bills have been put forward to define who can have public toilet access, and on what terms. Many of these bills seek to criminalize usage by people whose gender identity does not match the sex on their birth certificates.

These measures are allegedly put forward to protect cisgender women from being assaulted by cisgender men donning disguises, although there is no evidence of this ever having occurred in the past. A study conducted by the UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute found no significant change in the number of crimes since the passage of various laws that enable transgender public toilet usage.

In reality, transgender and gender non-conforming people are at a higher risk of violence when using the public toilet (see: trans bashing). A 2015 study by the National Center for Transgender Equality found that 59% of transgender American avoided using public facilities for fear of confrontation. This landmark study, which included 27,715 respondents, found that 24% of respondents had their presence in the restroom questioned, 12% had experienced verbal harassment, physical assault, or sexual assault when attempting to use the restroom, and 9% were denied access entirely. Several studies have found that preventing transgender people from using public toilets has negative mental health impacts, leading to a higher risk of suicide.

While transgender public toilet usage has been labelled as a moral panic, the ongoing discourse continues to have significant impacts on this group.

[Add Cavanagh book - not just trans, also LGB]

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Unisex (gender neutral)
Public toilets are often separated by sex. In many cultures, this separation is so characteristic that pictograms of a man or a woman often suffice to indicate the facility, without explicit reference to the fixtures themselves. In restaurants and other private locations, the identifications can be designed to match the decoration of the premises. Toilet facilities for people with disabilities, especially those reliant on a wheelchair, may be either gender-specific or unisex. Gender-neutral toilets are usual in cases where sex-separated ones are not practical, such as in aircraft lavatories and passenger train toilets.

In the 21st century, with lobbying from the transgender rights movement, some initiatives have called for gender-neutral public toilets, also called unisex public toilets (also called gender-inclusive, or all-gender). These may be instead of, or in addition to, gendered toilets, depending on the circumstances. Many groups are re-imagining what public toilets can look like; for instance, architect Joel Sanders, transgender historian Susan Stryker, and legal scholar Terry Kogan launched Stalled!, an open source website which offers lectures, workshops, and design guidelines for unisex public toilets.

In addition to accommodating transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, gender-neutral public toilets facilitate usage for people who may require assistance from a caretaker of another gender, such as people with disabilities, elderly people, and children.

An additional consideration with regard to gendered public restrooms is the availability of baby changing tables. Sometimes, these tables have only been installed in women's restrooms, owing to stereotypical assumptions that only women were likely to be accompanied by babies needing to have their diapers changed. This can be an impediment for fathers with their children and other male caregivers. Advocates have worked for changing tables to be installed in men's restrooms. Unisex washrooms would provide access to either regardless. - [If time, fix this one up] [This section frames gay sex as exclusively occurring between me who were too young to go to gay bars, prior to gay liberation. In trying to offer an explanation linked with drinking age, it takes a reduction approach to the phenomenon.]

Anonymous sex
Before the gay liberation movement, public toilets were amongst the few places where men too young to enter gay bars legally could meet others who they knew with certainty to be gay. Many, if not most, gay and bisexual men at the time were closeted, and almost no public gay social groups were available for those under legal drinking age. The privacy and anonymity public toilets provided made them a convenient and attractive location to engage in sexual acts then.

Sexual acts in public toilets are outlawed in many jurisdictions (e.g. the Sexual Offences Act 2003 in the UK). It is likely that the element of risk involved in cottaging makes it an attractive activity to some.

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[Add to this!]

United States
Massachusetts passed the first law requiring sex separation of public toilets in 1887. By 1920, this was mandated in 43 states.

In jurisdictions using the Uniform Plumbing Code in the U.S., sex separation is a legal mandate via the building code.

Many laws aim to restrict public toilet usage by transgender and gender non-conforming people (see: bathroom bill).

Toilets for Employees and Customers
Various countries have legislation stipulating how many public toilets are required in a given area for employees or for customers.

United States
The Restroom Access Act is legislation several U.S. States passed that requires retail establishments with toilet facilities for employees to also allow customers to use the facilities if the customer suffers from an inflammatory bowel disease or other medical condition requiring immediate access to a toilet.

United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 requires businesses to provide toilets for their employees, along with washing facilities including soap or other suitable means of cleaning. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Approved Code of Practice and Guidance L24, available from Health and Safety Executive Books, outlines guidance on the number of toilets to provide and the type of washing facilities associated with them.

Local authorities are not legally required to provide public toilets, and while in 2008 the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee called for a duty on local authorities to develop a public toilet strategy, the Government rejected the proposal.

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Europe
Public toilets were part of the sanitation system of ancient Rome. These latrines housed long benches with holes accommodating multiple simultaneous users, with no division between individuals or groups. Using the facilities was considered a social activity.

[By the Middle Ages public toilets became uncommon, with only few attested in Frankfurt in 1348, in London in 1383, and in Basel in 1455. A public toilet was built in Ottoman Sarajevo in 1530 just outside a mosque's exterior courtyard wall which is still operating today.]

Sociologist Dara Blumenthal notes changing bodily habits, attitudes, and practices regarding hygiene starting in the 16th century, which eventually led to a resurgence of public toilets. While it had been perfectly acceptable to relieve oneself anywhere, civility increasingly required the removal of waste product from contact with others. New instruction manuals, schoolbooks, and court regulations dictated what was appropriate. For instance, in Galateo: or, A Treatise on Politeness and Delicacy of Manners, Giovanni della Casa states “It does not befit a modest, honourable man to prepare to relieve nature in the presence of other people, nor do up his clothes afterward in their presence. Similarly, he will not wash his hands on returning to decent society from private places, as the reason for his washing will arouse disagreeable thoughts in people.” Historian Lawrence Stone contends that the development of these new behaviours had nothing to do with problems of hygiene and bacterial infection, but rather with conforming to increasingly artificial standards of gentlemanly behaviour.

These standards were internalized at an early age. Over time, much that had to be explained earlier was no longer mentioned, due to successful social conditioning. This resulted in substantial reduction of explicit text on these topics in subsequent editions of etiquette literature; for example, the same passage in Les règles de la bienséance et de la civilité Chrétienne by Jean-Baptiste de la Salle is reduced from 208 words in the 1729 edition, to 74 words in the 1774 edition.

The first modern flush toilet had been invented in 1596, but it did not gain popularity until the Victorian era. When hygiene became a heightened concern, rapid advancements in toilet technology ensued. In the 19th century, large cities in Europe started installing modern, flushing public toilets.

George Jennings, the sanitary engineer, introduced public toilets, which he called "monkey closets", to the Crystal Palace for The Great Exhibition of 1851. Public toilets were also known as "retiring rooms." These facilities included separate amenities for men and women, one of the first to introduce sex-separation to the activity. The next year, London's first public toilet facility was opened.

[Underground public toilets were introduced in the United Kingdom in the Victorian era, in built-up urban areas where no space was available to provide them above ground. The facilities were accessible by stairs, and lit by glass brick on the pavement. Local health boards often built underground public toilets to a high standard, although provisions were higher for men than women. Most have been closed as they did not have disabled access, and were more prone to vandalism and sexual encounters, especially in the absence of an attendant. A few remain in London, but others have been converted into alternative uses such as cafes, bars and even dwellings.]

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