Is it safe to pee?

Most people take it for granted that the places they live, work, study, go out for a meal or a drink at, go out to for fun, will all have working toilets they can use safely. Most people have no idea what it is like not to take that for granted.

There was the time when the only toilet I could use in my department building was out of service for four months.

There were the times the lifts were out of service, and I couldn't get to the toilets in the building I had class in.

There are all the cafes and bars that are just fine if all you want is to get in the door and order a drink. In fact, you could spend all evening there. So long as you never need the loo, because it's down a flight of stairs. No lift. No toilet on the ground floor.

There were all the times I wanted to meet up with other people, or take a child in my care for a day out, and couldn't because there was no baby changing at the place we were due to go, and the kid I look after is still in nappies.

There were all the times I took a disabled kid to a park, or some other venue, and we had to leave, because the kid uses nappies, and there was no disabled changing, and the kid is too big to use fold-down baby changing stations.

Here's what I've never experienced: being harassed for using the loo. I don't know what that's like.

Here's what I do know: there are few things so soul-sucking and humiliating as explaining to your teachers, your work supervisors, and other people around you, that you cannot use the toilet in the places you live, work, study, go out to. It sucks. It really sucks. And it's disruptive to your working day, decreases your working productivity, and does a number on your mental health.

Who is most affected by a lack of accessible toilet facilities?

• Trans people. People who do not conform to the gender labels on bathroom doors, and who are forced to use the wrong toilets by institutional policy, prejudice, and fear of harassment if they use the right toilet.


• Disabled people and their caregivers. People who can't get to bathrooms that are not accessible, or who need certain facilities that many places currently do not stock. Their caregivers are also affected if their movement depends largely on that of the disabled person.


• Children and their caregivers. People who need changing facilities, and people who need to take the children with them.

If you've never experienced it, and you can't quite imagine it, try this: try not going to the toilet, ever, except in your own home. (Some people who live in student halls, for example, may not have suitable bathroom arrangements where they live, but that's advanced empathy practice). At no point during your working day, or during any outing, may you use the toilet. But try this for a limited period of time. I don't wish long term patriarchal bullshit on anyone, not even for empathy practice.

So when I'm told about projects like Safe2Pee
, it breaks my heart. But it also makes me glad to know that there are folks I can campaign with. Watch this space. Campaigns for a safer campus are coming to a toilet near you.

--IP