Academics spend £50,000 renaming toilets from 'Ladies' and 'Gents' to avoid offending transgender people

Academics have been accused of taking the pee after spending a reported £50,000 of taxpayers’ money on a study into the naming of public toilets.

Their verdict? ‘Ladies’ and ‘Gents’ loos should be rebranded as ‘toilets without urinals’ and ‘toilets with urinals’.

Disabled loos could be renamed ‘larger toilets with grab bars’ as part of the proposals.

Dr Jenny Slater, who led the Sheffield Hallam University study, said: “Toilets may seem a frivolous subject but they are at the heart of important discussions about how we understand our own identities.”

The purpose of the study was to examine issues surrounding the various types of public toilet currently on offer, and the difficulties they can present to some users, such as transgendered people and the disabled.

Research began back in 2015 as a ‘cross-disciplinary, arts-based research project exploring the toilet as a place of exclusion and belonging’, named Around the Toilet (AtT).

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Dr Slater said on her blog: “Trans, queer and disabled participants shared with us their difficulties in finding toilets that were functional, easily locatable and safe.

“One trans woman described how her ability to socialise and go to work was limited by her access to toilets; she explained that when she felt unsafe to use public toilets, she was unable to leave the security of her house.”

Further grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) subsequently funded two more related projects, including the Toilet Toolkit, which urges architects, planners and designers to “rethink notions of access in relation to the toilet design procecss”.