Cut Out the Label: NGO Launches All Gender Toilet Program

The Beijing-based NGO Beijing Gender Health Education Institute (BGHEI) is launching their "All Gender Toilet" campaign throughout the city to promote public toilets that can be used by everyone regardless of gender distinctions.

In their campaign, they are offering training to any establishments looking to install such an All Gender Toilet. In fact, as they say, toilets don't need to be labelled, they aren't at home.

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All such establishments will earn a special certificate, and will be included in the BGHEI gender-friendly map. "Up to now, dozens of gender-friendly businesses, UN branch offices, and not-for-profits based in Beijing have committed to make gender friendly toilets available," Martin Yang, sustainable development project manager at BGHEI, told us.



The reasons for installing such toilets are plentiful. Gendered toilets create very real troubles for people who dress gender-blindly, or short-haired girls and long-haired boys, transgenders, fathers with their little daughters or mothers with little sons, adult daughters or sons with ailing fathers and mothers, or people who need help using the toilet from differently gendered friends or caretakers.

A toilet like this signals to the establishment's staff and clientele that it's gender-friendly, no matter what label the user aligns with. They are already becoming the norm across college campuses in the United States, and the United Kingdom.

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