Single locker room and restroom experience
THEMES
– Facilities
– Fighting discrimination
– Communication
– Diversity education and training
TARGETED OBJECTIVES
A step forward for inclusion through sport: making the locker room and bathroom accessible to all by breaking down the stereotypes of binarism.
MAIN INITIATIVE
A gender neutral dressing room and bathroom was created for everyone to use without giving other options. This was done in order to defy the social and cultural habits we are all used to following.
This initiative was carried out for the first time at the figure skating competitions in Misano Adriatico (Rimini, Italy). The nature of the sport itself, but above all the facility, helped make its implementation successful.
To gain more knowledge about the world of skating and with the support of Claudio Faragona, the project started with a survey one year earlier, addressed to families, on the idea of a gender neutral dressing room. The responses were mostly negative. In 2020, the pandemic and the Covid isolation protocols created various restrictions for the implementation of the competitions, but a solution was found: they required either separate changing rooms for the different clubs, or a single changing area which could guarantee the necessary physical distancing and effective cleaning methods. Thanks to
the type of structure of the Misano building, they were able to create a single, huge changing room with attached bathroom.
BENEFICIARIES
Athletes, age 8 or more.
IMPACT OF THE INITIATIVE
The experience caused everyone to further reflect on the difficulties of transgender, intersex and non-binary people in accessing locker rooms and bathrooms, which consequently often affects their access to sport itself. The project showed families and athletes that using a single locker room has not created any issues.
Heterosexual, cisgender girls were grateful because they felt they could legitimately cover up with a towel while getting changed without being frowned upon, which they said would happen in a women’s locker room.
Both the bathroom and the changing room were left cleaner than, for instance, the sexsegregated
restroom for the public.
SUSTAINABILITY AND TRANSFERABILITY
Different factors need to be considered in different situations, but there definitely has to be support from the host facility and for managers to have a positive and proactive attitude. Basically, there needs to be an openness to be able to walk in other people’s shoes through listening to their difficulties and obstacles.
One challenging part of the project is to keep promoting it, keeping in mind that new methods are easier to unlearn than old methods. It takes commitment to bring about change.
WEBSITE OR RELATED RESOURCES