1. Will all-gender bathrooms exist at EAG London?
As I understand it, the UK government has mandated that new buildings be constructed with bathrooms that are either multi-stall and single-gender or single-stall and all-gender. In the past, CEA has rented event spaces with single-gender bathrooms and put up paper signs designating them as all-gender. Will the new UK law prohibit CEA from doing so at EAG London?
2. If not, will trans participants be allowed (under UK law) to use single-gender bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity?
The answer to 2 is almost certainly yes (binary) trans people in the UK are legally allowed to use a toilet that matches their gender identity, as far as I can tell. The first hit on google for ‘are trans women allowed to use women’s toilets in the UK’ is an official Metropolitan (i.e. London) Police doc which states:
‘If someone (whether binary or non-binary) presents as, say, female then they use the female toilet and vice versa. There is no law or policy prohibiting anyone from using whichever toilet matches their gender identity, and a trans* individual cannot be ordered to use a toilet that they feel uncomfortable using.’
(https://www.google.com/search?q=are+trans+women+allowed+to+use+women%27s+toilets+in+the+UK&sca_esv=99636c5107a06ae2&sxsrf=ACQVn08bCytPEZQpC4ye-pZZjBb2k89MNQ%3A1713262582583&source=hp&ei=9k8eZqyOIcm_hbIPlOa6oAk&iflsig=ANes7DEAAAAAZh5eBv27X0GJe-Bk-eYLDXPftd9SGGjo&ved=0ahUKEwis4Y69wMaFAxXJX0EAHRSzDpQQ4dUDCBc&uact=5&oq=are+trans+women+allowed+to+use+women%27s+toilets+in+the+UK&gs_lp=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&sclient=gws-wiz)
The answer to 1) is very likely yes as this was the case at previous EAG events in the UK. Whatever rules there are for newbuilds obviously a) don’t apply to existing buildings (and the venue is not a new built) b) don’t have any influence on how you use or label bathrooms at private events (unless you are discriminating or something which I assume CEA isn’t planning to do).
Hey there! I work on the EA Global team, thanks for the question :) At EAG London, each floor of the venue will have an all gender bathroom. For future reference, our team can always be reached by emailing hello@eaglobal.org (forum questions usually get flagged to us, but we don’t actively monitor the forum).
Hi! I’d recommend reaching out directly to the organizing team. You can reach them here: hello@eaglobal.org.
You can do this in parallel to having this post publicly; in fact, you can even email them to notify them that this post exists! However, I wouldn’t expect that they’ll see this question on the Forum by default. There’s a lot of content on the Forum, and the EAG team is extremely busy.
Commenting to signal-boost that @frances_lorenz , who works on the EAG team, has responded here.
Hi without speaking for the organizers. My understanding is that the regulation requires that new buildings in the UK have separate, single-sex bathrooms. The Gov.UK website essentially says this is to avoid the “SOLE installation of gender-neutral facilities.” My impression is that gender-neutral toilets with multiple cubicles will be banned in new builds but not (for example) a toilet and sink in a private room (like what you typically see provided for people with disabilities). It seems (from an 80⁄20 look at the regulation) that “new” is a key qualifier here and that existing builds will maintain their existing facilities and organizers remain within their rights to designate bathrooms as unisex (although I would guess such facilities will exist already- I did take a quick look but did not find the answer quickly). As such, I believe the answer to (1) is “No.” The new law does not appear to touch upon (2) and under non-discrimination law in the UK the answer is “Yes”. I really hope this helps!
P.s. Can someone please explain why the original poster is getting down-voted? This seems a reasonable question.
I didn’t vote, but maybe a sense that the poster should have tried asking the organizers privately first (and mentioned in the post if that hadn’t worked?)
FWIW I’m happy this question was asked publicly: I had no idea about this ruling (which is just extremely cruel and unhelpful) and this is a serious inclusion issue.
That’s fair, although asking privately first doesn’t mean not raising the issue publicly.
Because of how the Forum software works, many more people may see the original question rather than the organizer’s response. (This is also true of many ways of raising issues.) So I think one upside of asking privately first, and posting the answer along with the concern, is ensuring that as many people as possible see the answer. Doing so also would prevent potential anxiety if the answer is that the (proposed?)[1] regulations would have no effect on non-new construction, which seems likely to be the case.
It’s unclear if anything has actually changed yet. In August 2023, it was said that “[t]he changes will be made through Building Regulations and accompanying guidance” (emphasis mine).
I asked in public because I believe that multiple people could benefit from the answer and that’s more efficient than multiple people asking the same question in private emails. Regardless, I don’t care about the post’s karma or what anyone thinks about my decision to ask publicly except for the EA Forum staff or the EAG organizers.
Let’s test that. I’d love it if the people who down-voted OP “agree” vote Jason’s (Edited to add next sentence) or Chris’ interpretations. Thanks!
I didn’t vote, but maybe people are worried about the EA forum being filled up with a bunch of logistics questions?