A woman has revealed how she was slammed by fellow concertgoers after she took issue with a man using a gender neutral toilet at a concert venue.
Posting on Mumsnet, the woman revealed she took issue with the man using the woman’s bathroom after noticing there was a lengthy queue for the restroom but nobody waiting to use the gents.
However after she said she should be able to use the bathroom ahead of him, others in the queue ‘turned on her’ and said he was ‘perfectly entitled’ to use the toilets.
Other Mumsnet users leapt to her defence, with many suggesting the man was ‘a creep’ and one adding: ‘I’m sure there were other women in the queue silently agreeing with you.’
A British woman has revealed how she was slammed by fellow concertgoers after she took issue with a man using a gender neutral toilet at a concert venue
Posting on the website, she wrote: ‘Went to a live music venue last night. In a very woke seaside town on the south coast for context.
‘At the end of the night, I popped to the loo before leaving for home. As so often happens, the queue for ladies was lengthy, no real queue for the gents.
‘I joined the queue and noticed the person in front of me wasn’t a man just keeping his partner company while she waited as I first thought, but a man waiting to use the toilet. He was not a trans woman, he was a man and a drunk one at that.’
She continued: ‘I told him he was in the wrong queue and pointed to the gents. He said he wanted to use these toilets.
Posting on Mumsnet, the woman revealed she took issue with the man using the woman’s bathroom after noticing there was a lengthy queue for the restroom but nobody waiting to use the gents
‘I asked why, he said they are gender neutral so he can. (I don’t know if they are – they probably are as they had a multitude of arrows on the door.)
‘I said I am a woman needing to use the woman’s facilities and I would do so, ahead of him.’
However she said others in the queue immediately criticised her for her comments, revealing: ‘The queue of women turned on me and said I couldn’t block him, repeating these are gender neutral toilets.
‘I said I cannot use a urinal and indeed went in front of him to use the loo first. When I had finished, I called the woman behind him to come forward and use the loo, which she did.
Other users on the site gave a mixed response to her comments, with some branding the man ‘a creep’ for trying to use the bathroom
‘The other women very cross with me for blocking him and asserted he was perfectly entitled to use these toilets.
‘Did I do the wrong thing?’
She continued: ‘I’ve thought about contacting the venue to understand what their loo provision is and asking was it right to have a man in the ladies (or are they gender neutral? Can anyone use the “gents”)?’
However other Mumsnet users were less convinced that she had done anything wrong.
One outraged person wrote: ‘How sad the women turned on you. We really need to stand together and help each other. That man was a creep.’
Meanwhile another commented: ‘Good for you. By your description, the toilets don’t meet the requirements for being gender neutral and the fact the men had their own toilets is sex discrimination. This needs to stop.’
A third wrote: ‘Sounds like a weird set-up. Why are men so deserving of segregated loos but women just have to use gender neutral ones?
‘Shouldn’t they all be gender neutral? Is this a common set up? (Don’t go out much.’
A fourth added: ‘Well done. The man sounds like a creep. I’m sure there were other women in the queue silently agreeing with you.’
Others criticised the woman for pushing in front of the man however.
One wrote: ‘You pushed in front of someone who was perfectly entitled to use the gender-neutral facilities and also encouraged someone else to do the same too?
‘And you’re asking us how come all the others in the line were p****** at you?’
The Old Vic theatre scrapped its men and women toilets and replaced them with ‘self-selection’ facilities that can be used by both genders in October 2019.
The historic London theatre in Waterloo had previously promised to double the number of women’s toilets to help tackle the industry-wide problem of long queues for female loos.
However, instead, all male and female toilets have been replaced with cubicles or urinals, which can be used by both men and women.
The move prompted criticism on social media especially because the theatre had in 2018 run a £100,000 fund-raising campaign featuring Joanna Lumley and Glenda Jackson that specifically promised more women’s loos at the venue.
Under the new system women have access to 24 toilets, which would have to be shared with men. In contrast, men have access to 42 facilities, including urinals that only they would use.
Feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez said on Twitter: ‘Just scanned back through my pics because I remember approvingly Tweeting about @oldvictheatre crowdfunder for specifically more ‘ladies loos’. And yep. They did not specify that there would in fact be no ladies loos at all.’
She added that the theatre had ‘ended up giving men 18 facilities practically speaking just for them, plus 24 they share with women.
‘So that’s 42 men have access to. Meanwhile women have access to 24 that they share with men. This is an improvement how?’