A gender-neutral toilet is just the same as any other toilet apart from the sign on the door. That's the reassurance from transformation councillor on the Rhodes SRC Lindokuhle Zungu, as the University prepares to accommodate the concept.
A gender-neutral toilet is just the same as any other toilet apart from the sign on the door. That's the reassurance from transformation councillor on the Rhodes SRC Lindokuhle Zungu, as the University prepares to accommodate the concept.
The move follows the University of Cape Town's introduction of gender-neutral toilets at the beginning of the year. Jessica Breakey, transformation representative of the UCT SRC, told Grocott's Mail there had been no resistance from that university's properties and services division.
She said the move followed complaints made by LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) students about the lack of gender-neutral bathrooms. The push for gender neutral toilets has been an international one, Breakey said.
"In the past few years campuses all over the world have started to implement them.
"The issue of [gender]and [its]fluidity, I feel, is almost untouched in campus activism," said Breakey. Rhodes University, meanwhile, already has gender-neutral toilets in its Physics building, Zungu said. He said many students were confused when they heard about the project, some saying there was no need for it.
“People were obviously not aware of the reasons," he said.
"They have their own views. So we had to basically teach them and let them know in detail as to why a project like this was essential.” In this week's telephone interview with Grocott’s Mail, UCT's Breakey said gender-neutral toilets had exactly the same facilities as a "gendered" male toilet.
"People who complain about money spent on transformation do not understand how important transformation is in South Africa," Breakey said.
"And that includes race, class, gender and sexuality."
“I think the idea of a gender-neutral space is vital to academic institutions where such things are being researched, lectured and debated.” Zungu urged people not be scared of the gender-neutral toilets.
"They are not different from any other toilets, except for the sign on the door. Anyone can use them," he said.
Attempts to obtain official comment from Rhodes University had been unsuccessful at the time of going to print.
