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This one seems to be a bit of a hot potato at the moment, so I figured I'd throw in some thoughts.
As far as which bathroom the transgendered should use, there's clearly one school of thought that says they should use whichever bathroom they feel comfortable using, while another school of thought says they should use the bathroom corresponding to their birth gender (in other words if you have boy bits use the boy's room; if you have girl bits use the girl's room).
I can't help thinking the best solution is neither of the above, but a totally different approach to changing rooms and bathrooms.
At present it seems the norm is for changing rooms to be segregated by gender but aside from that to be wide open spaces so nobody has any privacy from anyone else within the same room. That, I believe, is the crux of the problem. Not who uses what room, but the assumption that privacy should not be expected.
The first question we might consider relates to who supervises which changing areas. I'm sure there would be an outcry if a male teacher were left to supervise the girls' changing room, but to address the wider issue we need to consider why this is. It's pretty simple, we can reasonably expect a male teacher to have desires towards naked girls in the changing rooms and those desires are considered inappropriate. But that immediately raises the question of whether a gay male teacher should supervise the boys' changing room. After all, if the concern is that the adult in charge may have desires towards those under their supervision a gay man supervising naked boys should be just as much a concern as a straight man supervising naked girls (it relates just as much to a straight woman supervising the boys' room or a lesbian supervising the girls' room, but for brevity I won't explicitly list all permutations going forward).
The exact same issue applies to the issue of a boy using the girls' changing room. The suggestion that a boy should be allowed to use the girls' room because he identifies as female causes alarm, for much the same reason as it would cause alarm if a male teacher were supervising the girls. But with the same reasoning, why is a straight boy in the girls' changing room looking at the girls any more a concern than a gay boy in the boys' changing room looking at the boys?
It seems to me that the best solution is one in which everybody has privacy. So instead of worrying who goes into which room, divide the rooms into cubicles and put proper doors on the cubicles. None of the silliness seem in bathrooms where anyone standing next to the wall can just look over the top, put full height doors on them. At a stroke bathrooms can become unisex, where anyone needing the bathroom goes into the room, picks a cubicle, does what they need to do, and leaves. You don't need to worry about who is in the next cubicle, what they have between their legs, how they self-identify, what they are doing, you just get on with what you need to do and leave.
Likewise in changing rooms you go into the changing room, pick a cubicle, change from one outfit into another, and leave. Again you don't need to worry who is in the next cubicle because you can't see them and they can't see you.
On top of making the ongoing issue of the transgendered go away, on a wider scale it seems to solve a number of other issues as well. If you're a father with a 9-year-old daughter and want to take her swimming, what do you do? Do you leave her to fend for herself in the female changing room, or do you take her into the male changing room with you? What if your daughter is 18 but sufficiently disabled that she can't change herself? Individual cubicles mean the two of you can share a cubicle and, once again, nobody else needs to worry about what is happening behind the closed door. If you are with a parent/sibling/spouse who is infirm or disabled and of the opposite gender, you just go into the unisex facility and you can give them whatever help they need.
It seems to me that a solution like this solves the problem of which facility transgendered people should use while at the same time preserving the privacy of everyone else. It turns the problem from something relating purely to the transgendered and turns it into a change that can improve things for everybody. It ceases to be about changing everything around for the benefit of a small proportion and instead realigns things to benefit everybody.
Are there any downsides, aside from potential concerns about the cost of implementation, to an approach like this?
As far as which bathroom the transgendered should use, there's clearly one school of thought that says they should use whichever bathroom they feel comfortable using, while another school of thought says they should use the bathroom corresponding to their birth gender (in other words if you have boy bits use the boy's room; if you have girl bits use the girl's room).
I can't help thinking the best solution is neither of the above, but a totally different approach to changing rooms and bathrooms.
At present it seems the norm is for changing rooms to be segregated by gender but aside from that to be wide open spaces so nobody has any privacy from anyone else within the same room. That, I believe, is the crux of the problem. Not who uses what room, but the assumption that privacy should not be expected.
The first question we might consider relates to who supervises which changing areas. I'm sure there would be an outcry if a male teacher were left to supervise the girls' changing room, but to address the wider issue we need to consider why this is. It's pretty simple, we can reasonably expect a male teacher to have desires towards naked girls in the changing rooms and those desires are considered inappropriate. But that immediately raises the question of whether a gay male teacher should supervise the boys' changing room. After all, if the concern is that the adult in charge may have desires towards those under their supervision a gay man supervising naked boys should be just as much a concern as a straight man supervising naked girls (it relates just as much to a straight woman supervising the boys' room or a lesbian supervising the girls' room, but for brevity I won't explicitly list all permutations going forward).
The exact same issue applies to the issue of a boy using the girls' changing room. The suggestion that a boy should be allowed to use the girls' room because he identifies as female causes alarm, for much the same reason as it would cause alarm if a male teacher were supervising the girls. But with the same reasoning, why is a straight boy in the girls' changing room looking at the girls any more a concern than a gay boy in the boys' changing room looking at the boys?
It seems to me that the best solution is one in which everybody has privacy. So instead of worrying who goes into which room, divide the rooms into cubicles and put proper doors on the cubicles. None of the silliness seem in bathrooms where anyone standing next to the wall can just look over the top, put full height doors on them. At a stroke bathrooms can become unisex, where anyone needing the bathroom goes into the room, picks a cubicle, does what they need to do, and leaves. You don't need to worry about who is in the next cubicle, what they have between their legs, how they self-identify, what they are doing, you just get on with what you need to do and leave.
Likewise in changing rooms you go into the changing room, pick a cubicle, change from one outfit into another, and leave. Again you don't need to worry who is in the next cubicle because you can't see them and they can't see you.
On top of making the ongoing issue of the transgendered go away, on a wider scale it seems to solve a number of other issues as well. If you're a father with a 9-year-old daughter and want to take her swimming, what do you do? Do you leave her to fend for herself in the female changing room, or do you take her into the male changing room with you? What if your daughter is 18 but sufficiently disabled that she can't change herself? Individual cubicles mean the two of you can share a cubicle and, once again, nobody else needs to worry about what is happening behind the closed door. If you are with a parent/sibling/spouse who is infirm or disabled and of the opposite gender, you just go into the unisex facility and you can give them whatever help they need.
It seems to me that a solution like this solves the problem of which facility transgendered people should use while at the same time preserving the privacy of everyone else. It turns the problem from something relating purely to the transgendered and turns it into a change that can improve things for everybody. It ceases to be about changing everything around for the benefit of a small proportion and instead realigns things to benefit everybody.
Are there any downsides, aside from potential concerns about the cost of implementation, to an approach like this?
