Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre stepped into the debate over trans rights on Wednesday, saying “biological males” should be banned from women’s sports, change rooms and bathrooms.
“Female spaces should be exclusively for females, not for biological males,” Poilievre said in Kitchener, Ont.
The Conservative leader made the comments after being asked if, as prime minister, he would introduce legislation to prevent “transgender women” or “biological men” from participating in female sports or entering female prisons and shelters.
“A lot of the spaces … are provincially and municipally controlled, so it is unclear … what reach federal legislation would have to change them,” Poilievre said.
“But obviously female sports, female change rooms, female bathrooms should be for females, not for biological males,” he added.
There is a cohort of women (biological) who are very in favor of sex-separated bathrooms. Women are vulnerable to sexual assault when having to take care of bodily functions and have the unique risk of being impregnated from said assault. This article discussed issues with public toilet access and usage for women in India, for example. If a group of women in fact want sex-separated bathrooms, then I think logically that should win out over those who don’t care. Men’s bathrooms should also be safe for gender non conforming people and could in fact be the default bathroom for everyone.
Non-gendered bathrooms aren’t just the same bathrooms we currently have, but just letting everyone in. It’s either a single room with a toilet and sink, or a stall that completely closes from floor to ceiling on all sides, then having communal sinks. I’m definitely more in favor of having sinks more out in the open, because not enough people wash their hands, and maybe that would help.
That’s a fair point, but flimsy stalls that you can inadvertently make eye contact through the door gaps in, are not what I have in mind. Rather, individual rooms for doing private business, potentially with a common area for washing hands, are what I imagine, and are already being used in several establishments.
