The reason why the Canadian Museum for Human Rights is adding gender-neutral washrooms

Visitors going to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) in Winnipeg may notice a change on their next visit – the museum has made its washroom facilities gender-neutral.

Haran Vijayanathan, director of equity and strategic initiatives with CMHR, said this change follows requests made by visitors over the past several years, and concern over not having the gender-neutral spaces.

“We do have single-occupancy washrooms within the museum; however, they were not proactively offered as gender-inclusive spaces, and it was serving multiple needs of different individuals.

“So, based on that feedback and concerns, we decided, we're going to walk down this brave path of changing all of our washroom signs to remove gender icons, and just basically list what's in those spaces for people to choose what facility they wish to use.”

Vijayanathan said all of the signs have been changed in the museum, and identify the amenities that are in the washroom, whether it’s a toilet, a urinal, multiple stalls, or a change table for infants.

The announcement comes on the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia. Vijayanathan said the conversation about making the changes to the washrooms has been going on for more than a year, and was also prompted by a report into the museum by Laurelle Harris, which recommended changes to make the building more inclusive.

He said the museum will be evaluating the change and look at making improvements.

“We will be looking at increasing privacy, through working with an architectural firm and then engaging community on seeing which options work best to increase privacy, and promote safety and comfort for everyone in visiting the museum and working within the museum,” Vijayanathan said.