RUSSELL Leadbetter writes “that to date not one reader has thought it worth writing to The Herald Letters Pages to express either approval or outrage” (“Online hostility to issues of gender identity”, The Herald, March 9). He is referring to the proposal that new-build schools be given unisex toilets.
I do not write to express any opinion on gender politics, but to point out to readers the experience I had with unisex toilets.
In December last year, in Edinburgh for the Christmas market, I was treated to lunch in a local restaurant. At the end of the meal I excused myself and went to the toilet area. Just one room with four cubicles. I pushed open the door of the nearest one and was horrified to see the state of it. I tried the other three and the condition of each was disgusting. Grabbing handfuls of paper towels I managed to clean the floor of one cubicle, by skating round on the towels. Then I cleaned down the toilet itself. After washing my hands in the not-too-clean washbasin I exited smartly, feeling utterly revolted by what I had found. I did consider reporting it but as I was a guest I didn’t want to create any unpleasantness in the very busy restaurant. I learned, as we left the place, that the toilets are “unisex”. I have never been in women’s toilets quite so bad as those were that night.
So, I hope that those primary school pupils, who will possibly be using the unisex toilets, will be instructed in how to use them properly and leave them fit for the next person to use. I would add, in a better condition than some rather larger boys and girls (adults) had done in that restaurant.
For myself, I will never willingly enter a unisex toilet again. But then, I am getting on a bit.
Thelma Edwards,
Old Comrades Hall,
Hume,
Kelso.
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