BREAKING: UNSW to open world-first “no-gender” bathrooms
In a confusing move, the university announces new bathrooms designed to be used by no one at all.
This Monday, UNSW’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion department announced that the university would be opening a new “no-gender” bathroom on its Kensington campus. The bathroom will be the first of its kind to open in Australia, making it a landmark achievement for the university. It will be located in the basement of the Morrison Center for Economics, and will open for no one to use starting week 1 of term 3.
Unlike the name suggests, these bathrooms are not for agender people, or those who otherwise lack gender, but are for use by no people at all. They are designed to be inaccessible to every human, and feature doors that cannot be opened, as well as a lack of floor.
Currently, UNSW has the fewest all-gender bathrooms across the Go8 universities, with Kensington campus having only 2 available for students to use. However, with the addition of the new no-gender bathroom, UNSW will rank 1st in the country for the number of bathrooms accessible to no one.
A spokesperson for UNSW EDI stated that the no-gender bathroom is “a great example of UNSW’s commitment to equality and inclusion across our campuses. I mean, what is more equal and inclusive than a bathroom that we all equally can’t use?”.
The announcement also included plans to build two more no-gender bathrooms scheduled to open in late 2025, a move that has confused many, especially those who have spent years advocating for the university to open more all-gender bathrooms.
“It just doesn’t make any sense,” said an anonymous member of the UNSW Queer Collective, “why prioritise building bathrooms no one can use when there has been a push for years to open more all-gender bathrooms?”.
When asked by Noise for comment on the announcement, 2024 Queer Officer Pepsi stated, “This is the most progress we've made on equitable bathroom access since the campaign started in 2014”.
While the decision to open a no-gender bathroom is definitely a little confusing, it certainly is one way for UNSW to pull ahead of its competitors and stand out against the crowd of universities aiming to provide gender-diverse students with greater access to bathrooms on their campuses.
