[Diversity-talk] Gender-neutral toilets: tag proposal

[Cadence Ember]

Heya! This is my first time using this particular mailing list, and
I've finally summoned up the courage to post here, so I hope that I'm
doing everything correctly :)



So, unisex toilets. Here's my thoughts, and I'll start from the start
to make sure we're all on the same page.

Toilets, unlike most other amenities, are commonly gender-segregated,
so it is important to map which genders can use specific toilets.

The expected use of these tags would be in mapping software to allow
the user to only display toilets that match their gender, since those
are the only ones that they can enter. Being between genders myself
and not wanting to enter either gendered bathroom out of fear of
harassment, I would find such software very useful.

As I see it, here are the different kinds of genders that can be
marked on toilets:

- Male (only people presenting as male can enter)
- Female (only people presenting as female can enter)
- Unisex (anyone can enter regardless of their gender presentation)

For the sake of ideal tagging, this needs to be _multiple selection,_
since a particular toilet might accept only people who fall into male
and female.

(This meaning of unisex follows the definition of "Unisex public
toilet": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unisex_public_toilet )



However, on OpenStreetMap, according to the wiki, there are "2
incompatible tagging schemes in use"[1].

Depending on how the mapper feels, these are the possible schemes:
- "unisex" represents "people can enter, regardless of gender"
- "unisex" represents "males can enter and females can enter", i.e.
  only one choice out of "male, female, unisex" should be selected for
  any toilet



Step 1: Figure out how these tags have been used in the past, to shape
        our decisions.

I think I've already done the investigative work necessary for this.
According to edit statistics[2], iD and JSOM are by far the most used
fully capable editors (combined usage 86%, combined edits 93%). On iD
editor, the toilet gender selection box is radio buttons for
male/female/unisex, i.e. only one can be selected. On JSOM, when using
the toilets preset, the options male/female/unisex are presented as
checkboxes, i.e. one or more can be selected.

Since iD is so pervasive, and has made this critical mistake, I
believe it has contaminated the existing pool of tags to the point
where the tags cannot be read to say whether a toilet accepts people
regardless of gender, so the second meaning above should apply when
reading the data. So it's not usable for these purposes.



Step 2: Figure out what to do from here.

So here we are.

I believe that a new tag should be created to signify whether a toilet
can be used by people regardless of gender. In 2018, on this list, the
suggestion was made for "gender_segregated=yes/no"[3], and this is
noted on the wiki, though its usage hasn't really taken off[4] - no
doubt due to being included in neither the iD preset nor the JOSM
preset. It currently has 125 uses worldwide.

While gender_segregated is a usable name, I'm still not totally happy
with it. Imagine the case of a facility that has a male area, a female
area, and also a unisex area. What should the tag be? Going by the tag
_name_, gender_segregated=yes, because there _are_ segregated
facilities. Going by what I'd like the tag to be usable for, _no_,
because people can still use the toilet regardless of gender.

So going with the theme of male=yes, female=yes on existing toilets,
*I think the new tag should be all_genders=yes/no*. If the toilet can
be used by people regardless of gender, the tag is yes. If all
sections there are segregated, the tag is no. I think this should add
clarify how it should be used, and it fixes an inconsistency that
gender_segregated had.



Next steps:

- Reach a conclusion about the new tag name and purpose
- Update the wiki page
  - State that "unisex=yes" is equivalent to "male=yes, female=yes"
  - Integrate the new tag into the page
- Reach out to editors and get them to add this
  - iD could replace their radio buttons with checkboxes of
    "male/female/all_genders"
  - JSOM could update the preset to include another checkbox, possibly
    removing "unisex"
  - StreetComplete can finally add the "which genders can use this
    toilet" quest



I hope this proposal isn't too bold, and that we can make some
progress here towards helping genderqueer people safely go to the
bathroom in public.

Cadence



[1]
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:amenity%3Dtoilets#Gender_neutral_toilets
[2]
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Editor_usage_stats#Tables_and_figures
[3]
https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2018-April/080617.html
[4] https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/keys/gender_segregated