A new book argues feminism must be integral to public toilet design to ensure safety for everyone

The differentiation between male and female toilets posited on a binary excludes a whole spectrum of gender identities. Which toilet do they use? Most times, they get excluded from either. Terry Kogan – gay and transgender politics activist, and Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of Utah – proposes the adoption of all-gender, multiuser facilities that ensure privacy and safety to all restroom users without discrimination. He believes that the “architectural space of the sexseparated restroom is an unchanging, unchallenged constant at the heart of the controversy” which needs to be addressed architecturally as well as legally. Kogan discusses the legal battle between transgender plaintiffs along with the US Department of Justice under the Obama administration (the “Obama DOJ”) and civil rights groups, and the state plaintiffs. He argues that even though the Obama DOJ was in favor of protecting the rights of transgender people, they were themselves limited by endorsing sex-segregated restrooms, but allowed access based on gender identity. However, this approach disregarded the nonbinary nature of gender identity and the lack of safe options for certain individuals. Kogan argues for a change in envisioning the architectural space of apublic toilet which remains “cloaked in an ideology inherited...

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