Hobart councillor Louise Elliot receives backlash for move to have city’s toilet, change room policy overhauled
A Hobart councillor is pushing for the city to drastically overhaul its policy on toilets and change rooms in a move that has angered the state’s LGBTIQA+ community. HAVE YOUR SAY >>
Tasmania
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A Hobart councillor is calling for the city to introduce segregated toilets and change rooms for transgender people – but the state’s LGBTIQA+ community has labelled the push an “unacceptable solution to a non-existent problem”.
Hobart councillor Louise Elliot will present a motion to the council on Monday urging it to adopt a policy whereby new toilets, change rooms and shower facilities – as well as renovations to existing facilities – incorporate a third separate space for “people of all sexes and genders”.
It comes after a protest was held outside the Doone Kennedy Hobart Aquatic Centre earlier this month, where attendees spoke out in opposition to the centre’s inclusive facilities. Ms Elliot was present at the protest, along with former Hobart councillor Jeff Briscoe and Glenorchy alderman Harry Quick.
“Changes to Tasmania’s [anti-discrimination] legislation have created an insane situation where women no longer have the assurance that they’re dressing or showering in shared spaces where only other adult biological females are present,” Ms Elliot said.
“The council has no choice but to comply with the law, but it can take action to help improve the situation by giving people additional choices of the space they can use.
Ms Elliot said her motion was “not about demonising any group” but, rather, “being realistic and recognising valid opinions and relevant facts”.
“The vast majority of gender-diverse people are decent people and women who want their privacy, safety and dignity respected through single-sex spaces [and] are not anti-transgender,” she said.
Ms Elliot’s motion has been met with swift backlash from the state’s leading LGBTIQA+ advocacy group.
Equality Tasmania spokesperson Rose Boccalatte said the aquatic centre had had inclusive facilities for the past four years “without any complaints that we are aware of”.
“Like anyone else, trans people just want to use the facilities when we need to,” Ms Boccalatte said.
“By preventing us from using facilities that correspond with our gender identity, this motion risks exposing trans people to further harassment and violence, which we are already particularly vulnerable to.
“[It] is an unacceptable solution to a non-existent problem.”
Hobart acting mayor Helen Burnet said the aquatic centre had never received a complaint about its change rooms policy or usage and that the council’s position on the matter was compliant with the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act.
“As well as men’s and women’s change rooms, the centre also has three specific facilities labelled All Access, All Gender and Family Change Rooms that are open to everyone and offer private space for changing and showering,” she said.
Ms Burnet said the creation of specific change rooms for trans people would not be enforceable under the Anti-Discrimination Act.
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