News Avenue

Thursday 25 August 2016

'We don't care' - the new sign for gender-neutral toilets

It's a common sight at public events - a long line for the the ladies' loos and a short one for the men's.
In Canada, however, one venue hopes its new all-inclusive gender-neutral toilets will help to alleviate that problem. And, more significantly, it feeds into the debate about transgender rights in the country.
The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) has indicated that it wants attendees at Canada's largest annual fair to know they can use any of the facilities they have on offer - by putting up new "we don't care" signs on their public toilets to replace existing symbols long used in public washrooms.
Photos of the signs by Kansas-based artist Peregrine Honig, who tweeted the design in April, have been widely shared on social media by many who see it as a way of including those who identify as being transgender, or non-binary.
The CNE is not the only place to have adopted the signs.
In the US, the 21c Museum Hotel in North Carolina adopted the sign to protest against a law that requires people to use bathrooms consistent with the gender they were assigned at birth.
Picture of a man putting up the gender neutral bathroom signsImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionA gender neutral bathroom sign went up in the 21c Museum Hotel in Durham, North Carolina in 2016
The right of transgender people to use toilets of their choice has become highly controversial in the US.

In the US and Canada, all-gender bathrooms are being adopted increasingly by businesses and educational institutions, as awareness grows about the transgender community. But there is opposition to the move.


 
Share:

1 comments: