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University renames 'gents' as 'toilets with urinals' - to avoid upsetting transgender students
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:23 PM on 30th September 2008
Comments (7) Add to My Stories Anyone caught short at Manchester University will have to decide whether to use the 'toilets' or the 'toilets with urinals' after the women's and men's were re-named to avoided offending transgender students.
The change was made in the university's Students' Union after a number of transgender women claimed they were uncomfortable using men’s loos.
A sign reading 'Toilets with urinals' was duly placed over the traditional 'stick man' symbol while a 'Toilets' sign replaced the women's graphic.
The gents sign on the toilets at Manchester University has been plastered with a temporary sign to make it 'gender-neutral'
The university’s women's officer Jennie Killip told the student newspaper, Student Direct: 'Toilets are very much, you know, for boys and for girls, so we’ve taken away that overtly gendered aspect.
'A trans-student who does not identify themselves as a man would have to face abuse and violence if they used the "other" toilet.'
Speaking to the BBC, she said: 'If you were born female, still present quite feminine, but define as a man you should be able to go into the men's toilets - if that's how you define.
'You don't necessarily have had to have gender reassignment surgery, but you could just define yourself as a man, feel very masculine in yourself, feel that in fact being a woman is not who you are.'
But some female students said they were unhappy with the decision.
One said: 'Girls might not want to use the same toilets as boys, so then you just end up with people complaining about that - so you can't really win.'
Another said: ‘I personally wouldn't want to be in the same toilet as a man."
The university’s newspaper last week criticised the new ‘gender-neutral’ facilities.
Almost 60 people, including Ms Killip, have signed a letter to the student newspaper criticising the editorial.
Newspaper spokeswoman Susannah Birkwood said: 'The toilets have been provided for men who don't self identify as men and women who don't think of themselves as women.
'Whether or not this is political correctness gone mad… it certainly seems that way to some members of our student community.'
Writing on the paper's website one angry student said:

'I agree that this is a complete waste of time and money. I am sure the Union will now be flooded with complains from its female students about the state the toilets are left in by the men.'
It is unknown how many transgender or transexual students attend the university, nor how many had complained.