Oxford students vow to smash the cistern
Staff and students call for lavatorial disobedience against single-sex policy
Furious students and staff at Oxford University are demanding a rebellion over single-sex lavatories.
An open letter calls on Vice-Chancellor Irene Tracey and the wider university community to resist the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) Code of Practice.
At the time of writing, 364 people had signed it.
Oxford’s policy, recently updated in line with the EHRC Code, states that toilets and changing rooms designated as single-sex must be provided on the basis of biological sex; meaning that regardless of their identity feelings, men use the men’s and women use the women’s.
But the signatories describe this as an “affront to the safety and dignity of trans+ people”. They claim the Code is “exclusionary”, “notoriously unclear”, invites an “invasive, transvestigative approach”, creates a “hostile environment” and “normalises transphobia”.
They want Oxford to challenge the EHRC’s interpretation of the law, reaffirm its support for “trans+” people, provide more gender-neutral facilities and promise not to enforce the rules governing single-sex ones.
Should the University decline to become the Martin Loo-ther King of the trans toilet struggle, the letter calls for lavatorial civil disobedience.
Staff and students are urged to use whichever facilities they prefer, display signs of solidarity, challenge alleged harassment and refuse to help enforce the policy.
“The Code is only as enforceable as we, as a collective, allow it to be,” the letter declares.
The first signatory is Valerie Mann, president of the Oxford University LGBTQ+ Society, which backed protesters who disrupted law professor Michael Foran’s lectures on sex in law.
Oxford employees have also added their names. They include Christine Bunyan, Graduate Studies Manager at the Oxford Internet Institute; Amelia Taylor-Latham, Senior IT Officer at Green Templeton College; and Dr Hannah Wakeling, a postdoctoral researcher in particle-accelerator environmental sustainability in Oxford’s Department of Physics.
The University has so far stood firm. A spokesperson told TERF Times:
“The University has updated its guidance on toilets and changing facilities in line with its legal requirements. Oxford is committed to ensuring that there is suitable provision of facilities for all staff, students and visitors.”