Professor Blasts 'Unacceptable' Gender-Neutral Bathroom With Man at Urinal

An outraged London professor has taken to the internet after encountering a man at a urinal in a gender-neutral bathroom.

Sarahjane Jones, an associate professor of patient safety at Staffordshire University's School of Health and Social Care, told Twitter that she came across the objectionable bathroom at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, England, on Wednesday.

"I just entered this 'inclusive toilet' [...] to find a man using a urinal, which I would have had to talk past to use the cubical," Jones wrote. Her post has racked up 10,000 likes and nearly 2,000 retweets.

"This is not an example of inclusively! And is wholly unacceptable," said the furious professor, who added a photo of the bathroom door, featuring silhouettes representing female, male and non-binary restroom visitors.

In the U.K., four in 10 employees oppose introducing gender-neutral bathrooms in the workplace, a report from hygiene and health company Essity revealed earlier this week. The international survey of 10,000 workers found that acceptance levels are far lower in the U.K. than in other countries. In the United States, 34 percent of companies have already instituted gender-inclusive bathrooms.

However, U.S. "bathroom bills," which require people to use facilities corresponding to their sex assigned at birth, have been at the heart of a political firestorm in recent years. A bathroom bill in North Carolina became law in 2016, triggering broad backlash from civil rights groups. According to a 2017 report from LGBTQ advocates, 70 percent of transgender students avoid using school restrooms because they feel uncomfortable and unsafe.

Many of the comments on Jones's tweet took her side. Even some Twitter users who supported gender-neutral bathrooms argued that urinals did not belong in the shared space.

"Genuinely don't have a single problem with mixed toilets, as long as they're cubicles only," said one reader. "Even if there were urinals, my [principal] issue is that I don't want to see anyone p**sing—male, female or other."

Another agreed, "So flashing your tadger in a public inclusive toilet is ok but in public it's an offence [sic]? Surely urinals should not be in inclusive toilets where women and children have to walk by?"

"Every predator's wet dream innit?!" said another angry comment.

A minority of respondents said they had no problem with the setup. Some identified themselves as non-Britons and said mixed bathrooms with urinals were standard in their home countries.

"Please don't shoot me down, but I have no problem with a man having a pee in [a] urinal as long as [there] is a cubicle for me," wrote an unperturbed user.

"Why are we so afraid of sharing?" another asked. "It doesn't bother me but I'm old and live in France where most of the loos are a shared space."

Newsweek reached out to Sarahjane Jones for comment.