[OSM-talk] How do you mapping gender neutral toilets? What should the unisex tag mean?

Rory McCann rory at technomancy.org
Wed Apr 25 20:37:57 UTC 2018


On 25/04/18 19:58, Michael Reichert wrote:
> Your proposed redefinition of unisex=yes would change the meaning of
> an established and highly used tag. Please invent new tags.
This isn't redefining, to quote the wiki unisex=yes means "denotes that
access is unrestricted by a person's sex or gender.", which describes a
gender neutral toilet! The clue is in "uni-", it means the thing acts
like there only one (sex), it doesn't act like there are 2 (sexes).

It's still correct to say "unisex=yes implies male=yes and female=yes"
(i.e. males & females can still use the facility).

The big question: How do we differentiate between a thing that (a)
severs all genders, and (b) one that serves all genders (but segregates
people into 2 categories (male & female)). How do we tag "gender
neutral" vs "gender segregated"? In common English speech, "unisex"
means (a), the wiki implies (a). JOSM developers changed the validator
(& suggested auto fix) to align with (a). In common English, a gender
segregated toilet is not a "unisex toilet"! So I thought "unisex=yes"
meant gender neutral!

> Sorry for the stupid question but are there more types of toilets than
> the following three?
> - male only
> - female only
> - not assigned to a specific gender

Your last case should be split into two common cases: (i) Gender neutral
(i.e. non-segregated), everyone sharing, and (ii) male & female segregated.

I suggest (& am using):

(1) unisex=yes - This is a unisex, gender neutral toilet
(2) male=yes female=yes unisex=no - There are (separated) male & female
toilet facilities here, no unisex facilities.
(3) female=yes male=no unisex=no - Only female toilet facilities here
(4) male=yes female=no unisex=no - Only male toilet facilities here

and I suggest that if both male & female tags are set, you can presume
unisex=no unless unisex is also set (but it's good to set the unisex tag)

I'm not sure if there is anywhere that would be: (5) 3 options male,
female & unisex (unisex=yes male=yes female=yes)



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