Off for women's restrooms?
Construction engineers rely on unisex rooms - dismay among women's rights activists
Created: 09/28/2022, 10:17 am
By: Linus Prien
The sign of a unisex toilet (icon image).
© imago stock&people
The Association of German Engineers has recommended "consideration within the framework of a universal design" when it comes to the issue of toilets for the "third sex".
According to a media report, the Association of German Engineers (VDI) recommends the creation of unisex toilets in the discussion about an additional toilet for the so-called third gender.
This emerges from a revised sanitary room guideline of the VDI, as reported by the
Bild Zeitung
.
In it, the association proposes a unisex anteroom in order to deal with people of different genders without discrimination.
According to the constitutional court ruling: "New concepts for sanitary areas are required"
The toilet room with floor-to-ceiling individual cubicles can then lead off from the shared anteroom.
According to the report, one reason for revising the directive is the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court in 2017, as a result of which the third gender option "diverse" was introduced in civil status law.
"With the introduction of the third civil status by the legislature, new concepts for sanitary areas are required," says the draft of the VDI guideline.
Following the constitutional court ruling, the question arose as to whether new toilets would also have to be created for the third gender.
According to the report, the engineering association recommends “consideration as part of a universal design”.
The VDI recommendations are not legally binding.
According to the
Bild Zeitung
, however, it is expected that many builders will invoke it in the future in order to be prepared for possible lawsuits.
Unisex toilets: women's rights activist is skeptical
"It is irritating and worrying to see that women's toilets, i.e. shelters for girls and women, are to be given up in the name of cherished but misunderstood anti-discrimination," says human rights defender Inge Bell, as reported by the
Bild newspaper
.
Bell is a bearer of the Federal Cross of Merit and second chairwoman of the women's rights organization Terre des Femmes.
(AFP/LP)