Published
Unisex toilets should not be the exception in the canton, but the rule. The Zurich Real Estate Office is revising the corresponding room standards for school buildings.
If the Zurich city council votes in favor next summer, the city will be one of the pioneers in Switzerland. (Archive image)
AFP
The strict division into men’s and women’s toilets at Zurich schools should be a thing of the past. As the real estate office of the “NZZaS” (paid items) confirms, it is currently revising the room standards for school buildings. The option of offering the students a gender-neutral toilet is currently being examined, the newspaper continues.
If the Zurich city council votes in favor of the matter in mid-2022, the city of Zurich would be among the pioneers. Various cities requested by the “NZZaS” have no such plans for compulsory schooling – except in Lucerne, where the city council is planning to introduce gender-neutral cloakrooms and unisex toilets. “In principle, it can be assumed that the proportion of young trans or intersex people is higher than the statistical figures suggest,” he wrote in his response to the initiative.
Certain educational institutions in the canton already have appropriate toilets
In the canton of Zurich, it is already mandatory for new buildings to include barrier-free toilets that “can be used by people of any gender”. The ETH and the University of Zurich already have appropriate toilets.
The transgender network Switzerland welcomes the efforts made towards the “NZZaS”. It is about protecting intersex and trans children from violence and exclusion, which unfortunately already occurs in primary school.