Urinals enable cleanliness and speed. Removing them leaves everyone worse off

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The famous genderless washroom in the 1990s TV show Ally McBeal was a plot device meant for comedic purpose. These days it is no laughing matter. Across Canada, separate men’s and women’s restrooms are rapidly being replaced with unisex facilities.

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In Kitchener, Ont., recent renovations have left the 2,000 seat Centre in the Square, the city’s premier music auditorium, with five multi-stall gender-neutral washrooms. These require men and women to line up together to access a series of individual stalls that each contain a toilet, paper dispenser and garbage can. Such an arrangement, which upends centuries of sex-separated bathrooms, brings with it plenty of double-takes, puzzled looks and awkward moments. (Including when I took my 89-year-old mother to the Nutcracker.) But it is by no means unique.

In Montreal, a new washroom at the Université de Montreal’s student services building features a unique circular design with study rooms and couches meant to encourage users to linger all day. It also includes 12 individually-ventilated stalls with floor-to-ceiling doors, and a common area for washing up. Numerous public schools across B.C. have similarly done away with separate boys’ and girls’ washrooms. And the same is planned for the current renovation of Centre Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, the seat of Canada’s democracy.

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