The 37-year-old, who has had the hair loss condition since she was a child, said she was left shocked when a cleaner at the Trinity Square shop asked her “Are you aware you’re in the female toilet?” She said she became distressed and burst into tears.
That Tesco manager chasing after Helen and her husband with flowers was a class act though.
What is this “cautiosness” she’s talking about? There has literally never been a case of a transgender person doing anything inappropriate in a public toilet…
Isn’t that exactly what the law forces though? To somehow decide based on looks alone who should be in which toilet?
Couldn’t they also just not do that? Surely the law doesn’t require them to hire someone to police the toilets.
Gender neutral toilets could also get around it surely. Worked in multiple places with them and no one has ever cared.
It pretty much does. Not specifically to have someone dedicated to check everyone, but they have to take reasonable measures and a member of staff speaking up would fall under that.
Why though? Its a toilet. Couldn’t they just say the sign is only suggested genders. Women can clean men’s toilets still.
Point is, there are malicious people, both men and women. I think there have to be security measures in order for it to be impossible (or at least, highly difficult) to do things as spying or putting hidden cameras. But of course, that shouldn’t be done based only in the looks, but mostly in the behaviour. Anyone with a suspicious behaviour should be policed, but that’s like something that should be taken for granted in the first place.
About this, I ask rhetorically: would you also say that “men can clean women’s toilets still”? I personally doubt it given a lot of previous experiences on this topic, and I believe that in such a case one must be consistent: either both or neither.
Yes. I don’t even see why we need to have gendered toilets in the first place. No one has one at home. Seen a fair few places with a single toilet that is obviously not gendered. Never seen a gendered disabled toilet either.
Well, that’s fair.
In a gender-neutral bath we can have the double of good people to stop any bad person that wants to abuse others while they’re vulnerable, so, yeah, I don’t know either why there is a separation. If anything, there could be gendered baths only for people that feel really uncomfortable in gender-neutral ones, but that’s only to have more options (which is always good).
Exactly what the law enforces will differ by jurisdiction
This is in England.
This is not devolved and I believe the law being refered to is the one that has been clarified in the recent guidance after a supreme court decision.
Health is normally devolved, but this is counted as “human rights”.
Sire but most of “the world” OS not in the US
Sorry I think we are misunderstanding each other. I was talking about the UK as this is a UK specific story and community. I assumed that you were talking about the constituent countries in the UK that have different laws in your previous comment.
May I ask how it is you got here? - I am curious seeing as you’re on a PieFed instance.
My bad. I only ever really browse the top / unfiltered feed, never by community. Fediverse is small enough that there’s only a few active communities and the content is fairly homogenous.
I’m from Australia and am used to explaining to Americans in the fediverse that other jurisdictions exist I guess.
Not sure what you mean about piefed? quokk.au is the dweeb fork of piefed I think?
Even if there were, that person is responsible for their actions, not an entire category of people.
Yeah. And I don’t doubt there are, but they’re just a minority inside a minority.
I think she was just trying to be diplomatic.
If the business were to be cautious, they’d fix their damned toilets to not be gendered, divisive and exclusionary.
The law requires businesses to police toilets somewhat.
That’s nuts.
You probably haven’t seen the examples because of your social media algorithm.
#Confirmed Convictions
2016 | Idaho, USA | Shauna Smith - Secretly filmed an 18-year-old woman changing clothes in a Target fitting room in Ammon. Pleaded guilty to felony video voyeurism and was sentenced to five years in prison in January 2017, with two years fixed. Source: https://www.eastidahonews.com/2017/01/target-voyeur-sentenced-victim-says-felt-emotional-mutilation-following-incident/
February 2018 | Dunfermline, Scotland | Katie Dolatowski - Secretly filmed a 12-year-old girl using the women’s toilets at Asda by holding a mobile phone over the cubicle partition. Admitted the offence and received a community sentence. Source: https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/courts/848931/fife-sex-offender-back-in-court-after-breaching-community-payback-order/
March 2018 | Kirkcaldy, Scotland | Katie Dolatowski - Sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl in the toilets at Morrisons, forcing her into a cubicle and demanding that she remove her trousers. Admitted the offence and received a community payback order. Source: https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/fife/832849/warning-as-transgender-sex-offender-placed-in-womens-hostel/
2014 (conviction and sentencing in 2022) | California, USA | Hannah Tubbs - Sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl in the women’s toilet at a Denny’s restaurant in Palmdale. Pleaded guilty and received a two-year juvenile-facility sentence. Source: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-27/26-year-old-who-sexually-assaulted-girl-while-underage-will-serve-two-year-term-in-juvenile-facility-judge-rules
January-November 2023 (convicted 2025) | Middlesbrough and Darlington, England | Chleo Sunter - Secretly recorded men using toilets at Aldi, a shopping centre and Darlington railway station. Police found 790 photographs and 15 videos of men in cubicles and at urinals. Admitted two voyeurism offences and six breaches of a sexual harm prevention order. Sentenced to 26 months in prison. Source: https://inview.org.uk/news/181768-cex_offender_jailed_for_secretly_filming_men_in_aldi_and_public_toilets/181768-sex_offender_jailed_for_secretly_filming_men_in_aldi_and_public_toilets
2024 | Arlington, Virginia, USA | Richard Cox - A transgender woman and registered sex offender accused of inappropriate exposure in women’s locker rooms at school swimming pools and recreation centres. In October 2026, convicted of 12 felony counts of prohibited sex-offender loitering near children. Five indecent-exposure and five indecent-liberties charges remain pending, with trial scheduled for January 2027. Official source: https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Departments/Courts/Commonwealth-Attorney/Commonwealth’s-Attorney-News/Richard-K.-Cox-Guilty-of-12-Felony-Charges-of-Loitering-After-Conviction-of-an-Offense-Prohibiting-Proximity-to-Children
March 2022 (convicted December 2022) | Birmingham, England | Ian Bullock - Sexually assaulted a woman while she washed her hands in the women’s toilets at Birmingham New Street station. When questioned, claimed to identify as female. Convicted and sentenced to 16 months in prison in February 2023. Source: https://www.itv.com/news/central/2023-02-21/man-who-said-he-identified-as-female-sexually-assaulted-woman-in-station-toilet
2022-2023 (sentenced March 2024) | Durham, England | Kurtis Mawson - Secretly filmed women using public toilets in Durham, alongside other sexual offences. When confronted by police in the women’s toilets, claimed to identify as female. Pleaded guilty and received a 25-month prison sentence. Source: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/jk-rowling-says-happened-again-134644605.html
June 2025 | Durham, England | Kurtis Mawson - Recorded women in female public toilets again while on licence for earlier offences. Admitted further voyeurism and breaching a sexual harm prevention order in July 2025. Source: https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/25333298.willington-man-kurtis-mawson-guilty-repeated-voyeurism/
#Documented Incidents but Identity / Public Record Withheld
February 2019 | Durant, Oklahoma, USA | Alicia Gray / Sean Ojeda - A transgender woman accused of attempting to touch a 16-year-old boy’s genitals in the men’s toilet at Walmart. Police arrested the suspect for alleged sexual battery. I could not verify the final court outcome. Source: https://www.kxii.com/content/news/Father-of-teen-molested-at-Durant-Wal-505807091.html
March 2025 | Loudoun County, Virginia, USA | Unnamed transgender student - A transgender male student recorded audio and video of two boys in a school changing room. The US Department of Education subsequently found that the school district had mishandled the boys’ complaints and treated the parties unequally. Recording in changing rooms was prohibited by school policy. No criminal conviction against the student has been established. Official source: https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-concludes-loudoun-county-public-schools-violated-title-ix-and-retaliated-against-male-students-amid-sexual-harassment
May 2025 (publicised January 2026) | California, USA | Unnamed individual - A woman alleged that someone identifying as transgender was masturbating in a women’s Planet Fitness changing-room toilet cubicle. Video of a confrontation circulated online. The accused denied masturbating. The allegation was not established by a court, and no criminal outcome was verified. Source: https://www.outkick.com/analysis/woman-accuses-trans-identifying-male-masturbating-planet-fitness-womens-locker-room
Note that these are just the really public cases. They are far from exhaustive, and obviously exclude all crimes which were not reported or investigated.
And in literally zero of these cases was anyone’s gender identity relevant to their crime. Raping someone is already a crime. Filming someone changing or toileting is already a crime. If a cis man goes and has a wee in the ladies’ room and washes his hands and leaves, I don’t care. If he’s a member of the alt-right and he claims to be trans to get attention on social media, I don’t care. If he rapes someone, then I care. If he films someone, then I care.
A lot of conservatives say the only way to protect people from a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. I propose an analogous principle: One way to protect women from a raping man in the loo is to have a good man in the loo with them. By segregating the toilets, you’re ensuring that the only cis men in the ladies’ room are either cleaners, plumbers, or rapists. Desegregate, and there will be lots of good men going to wee in the gender neutral washroom who can stop a rapist.
I make the above recommendation largely in jest, but the end result is something I believe in. A world where we all just go into the stall to have a wee, pull up our trousers, wash our hands, and leave. Your gender identity or what bits are inside your trousers does not have to be relevant, other than the principle that there should be a sanitary bin and a hygiene product dispenser.
Based
Oh, and one more thing: The hygiene product dispenser should be free. We all get our toilet paper for free when we poo in a public loo. I believe in universal basic toilet paper, and I believe in universal basic tampons. This is not a difficult problem to solve when we are looking at nation-scale economics. The government should just give us all toilet paper, and our choice of tampon, pad, or none of the above. If nothing else, it would reduce the number of people flushing non-degradable wet wipes. Probably save the government money, all told.
And add bidets to the fucking building codes already! All new construction should have bidet toilet seats! With front AND back wash settings!
Wow your brain is fuuuuuuuucked
Lmao I doubt you could even read that much without getting distracted and wandering off somewhere else.
Good one slugger. PS: Your brain is fucked, stop bothering strangers, it’s pathetic.
TRANS RIGHTS!
Absolutely deranged behaviour from this commenter lmfao