For almost a year now, the toilets on the ground floor near the foyer, in the northern staircase, in our Informatikzentrum have been designated as all-gender toilets. Instead of the usual labelling “Womens’ toilet” and “Mens’ toilet”, the toilets are now labelled “Toilet without urinal” and “Toilet with urinal”. The designation was made as part of an action by the university’s Equal Opportunities Office and the AStA, which was originally only scheduled for Pride Month.
As the student council, we expressly welcome this. This way, people can choose which toilet they want to use without worrying that they might not be welcome because they might be misread by others. There are also people who do not feel they belong to either gender. With all-gender toilets, these too are given a place where they do not have to choose against their will.
As a relatively new building, the Informatikzentrum is equipped with many toilet rooms, on each floor in each stairwell, so that there are a total of 40 toilet rooms (excluding the barrier-free toilet rooms). In the original layout, these were 20 women’s toilets and 20 men’s toilets. As a result of the reallocation, there are therefore still 19 of each in the building, plus two all-gender toilets.
During the period when the toilets were reallocated through posting, we did not receive a single complaint. Instead, we received a lot of encouragement from a wide variety of people who very much welcomed the redesignation. We also stock these two toilets with free period products. We support the Equal Opportunities Office and AStA in their demands for a more open and inclusive university where students feel comfortable just as they are. The installation of more all-gender toilets throughout the university can be one such step. As a further concrete measure at our university, we are also calling for the installation of small rubbish bins in the cubicles of the rededicated men’s toilets, as they are in all women’s toilets.
Equal Opportunities Office of the University: https://www.gleichstellung.uni-bonn.de (only in German)
General Students’ Committee (AStA): https://asta-bonn.de (only in German)