Toilets should be safe, and accessible to transgender people

Public, school or workplace toilets should be open to transgender people who should be allowed to use the facility for the gender they identify with, says Gunnar Cottle

Re: Toilets need to be safe spaces - Rosemary McLeod, March 6.

There's a bit of inadvertent ignorance here.
Ignorance is not always the sin many feel it is. It's simply a lack of experience re the other side of the coin.

The thing you need to keep in mind, is that I'd imagine that 99.99 per cent of transgendered people (not ''a transgender'', transgendered people), have gender dysphoria.

The transsexual side of things is not a mental illness/disorder.

Gender dysphoria however, is. You ask the question about "identically equipped gender-neutral (see unisex) toilets'' and essentially, "why they shouldn't be happy with that".

There's a simple response. Gender dysphoria.

To be forced to used gender neutral, in a lot of ways, at least psychologically, is invalidating the fact that they are women.

Also not to mention, that not everywhere has unisex facilities available. What are they supposed to do in that situation?

The reason that Girl A was not consulted (about Girl B, a transgender person, using female toilets) was because her life and limb were not literally at risk. She likely feels she was correctly assigned at birth.

This is also known as CIS-gender. (I'm not a fan of calling people ''CIS'', but for now it can help differentiate).

When there are no unisex facilities, using a male-to-female transsexual as the model here, what is a person supposed to do?

Hold it? Not always feasible.

Using your model, you would prefer the person to go into a male toilet, instead of "infringing" on Girl A's rights.

The problem here, is that puts Girl B at risk. A lot more than Girl A is in. So while Girl A might feel hard done by, she is actually not at risk.

The myth of gender issues in bathrooms being a threat to women and children, is exactly that. A myth.

The statement about bullying, I do not feel is fair.

People genuinely feel that there is a legitimate risk to life and limb, versus a little discomfort.

Of course, they are going to be passionate about this.

You are talking about a situation, where there is little to no evidence of transsexual people preying on others in a bathroom, versus actual assaults on transgendered people that have happened, because they've been forced to use the bathrooms contrary to their gender.

Your comment about the pervert in the bathroom, whilst disgusting, is completely irrelevant to this situation. All it does is attempt to illicit an emotional response whilst reading this.

You then go on to mention unisex toilets.

Why is it, that your discomfort matters, but not the safety of the transgendered woman?

As you say. It wouldn't hurt to remember why the loos are segregated.

Transgendered women are exactly that. Women.

They should have just as much right to use the women's toilet and safety, as a CIS woman.

An easy way to look at this, is you can be born deformed.

You can have fewer chromosomes and more. More is known as Klinefelter Syndrome which has a strong effect on gender.

Sex and gender is not as simple as 'XX' and 'XY'.

I just showed your column this to a transgendered acquaintance of mine.

She said the original article was quite offensive. She often felt there had been no choice in earlier days and avoided fluids and using the bathroom.

This is your ''safe space''. Clearly this is extremely unhealthy, and as a society, we need to change this.

FOOTNOTE: Gunnar Cottle Is an LGBTQ supporter from Hamilton who tries to help show the LGBTQ perspective on things: "I'm just an average Joe, who has a lot of friends that are trans, gender non-binary, etc."