Earlier we posted a draft poll on whether BIDA should switch our restrooms from being for "men" and "women" to being for "everyone". We polled people at our dances on 2018-05-06 and 2018-05-20, and we now have the results.
We had 33 responses on 5/6, 41 on 5/20, and 7 people wrote to us saying that they couldn't be at the dance but wanted to share their views. Overall, this is 81 responses. At each dance about 75% of the dancers didn't fill out a ballot, which we think is mostly that people were more likely to vote if they had strong feelings.
Some of the responses were comments-only and didn't indicate a preference, so there were only 76 ballots with 'yes' or 'no' checked. Of those, 62 (82%) were in favor of the change. We had asked people to indicate how strongly they felt about this on a scale of 1 being "I don't care" to 5 being "this is very important to me". The average strength of feeling was 3.8, with most people who decided to fill out a ballot having a strong opinion. In general, people who were in favor of the change had stronger feelings than people who were opposed to it:
We had 33 responses on 5/6, 41 on 5/20, and 7 people wrote to us saying that they couldn't be at the dance but wanted to share their views. Overall, this is 81 responses. At each dance about 75% of the dancers didn't fill out a ballot, which we think is mostly that people were more likely to vote if they had strong feelings.
Some of the responses were comments-only and didn't indicate a preference, so there were only 76 ballots with 'yes' or 'no' checked. Of those, 62 (82%) were in favor of the change. We had asked people to indicate how strongly they felt about this on a scale of 1 being "I don't care" to 5 being "this is very important to me". The average strength of feeling was 3.8, with most people who decided to fill out a ballot having a strong opinion. In general, people who were in favor of the change had stronger feelings than people who were opposed to it:
How many people were in favor of the change by how they identified:
- female: 29 of 33 (88%)
- male: 23 of 31 (74%)
- nonbinary: 8 of 9 (89%)
- cis: 30 of 30 (100%)
- trans: 6 of 6 (100%)
- neither cis, trans, nor nonbinary: 22 of 36 (61%)
Here were the comments:
- I think it should be obvious from the sign if there are urinals in the bathroom. Maybe a picture of a urinal?
- will there be a changing room?
- Could be an issue for trauma survivors. Maybe switch between M/F and everyone every hour?
- I understand - but identity is personal - up to [unintelligible]. Can we have a "non-binary" bathroom? (PS: There are 8 genders.)
- The facilities aren't set up to accomodate opposite biology, so it could be awkward.
- Current accommodation makes it clear which room for which "equipment" while also informing everyone cis and not that they're welcome.
- y'all are great
- I am ok with anyone identifying as female, but guys are often messy.
- Yay BIDA!
- Depends. I am happy to change but I would not change unless you have a single user restroom. People whose cultural or religious beliefs, for instance, say that sharing with the other gender is not ok also deserve to feel comfortable (and not worry about going to hell, even though I personally have no such belief).
- This change is very necessary for nb dancers
- Do what makes people most comfortable
- Everyone deserves to feel comfortable here, even in the bathrooms
- However, as the bathrooms are currently designed the change seems problematical. There are two urinals in the men's room and one stall. If all the facilities were stalls it wouldn't be an issue. If women are fine seeing men's penises then go for it.
- It would make my NB friends more comfortable, therefore I support it.
- an accessible washroom would be great
- more welcoming!
- I think it would make some women really uncomfortable and me a bit uncomfortable
- I like notation that says "with urinals" and "stalls"
- I don't feel comfortable enough with all the men at BIDA to be ok with sharing a bathroom
- strongly only for others
- This dance has gotten better and better and more inclusive-feeling since switching to gender-neutral calling!
- While I am generally in favor of fewer things being gendered I recognize that there are significant concerns that some people might have with genderless restrooms.
- As someone who sits I do know that many of those who stand fail to aim. I value a dry and clean seat. If you switch I will cease to use the toilets here, instead going home for the night at first need. Sorry, but that's the way it is.
- I feel more comfortable being around other men when in the bathroom.
- Instead of "everyone" maybe just label the bathrooms "urinals" and "no urinals". I don't think the urinals are useful to everyone.
- besides inclusivity, this can be a traffic issue during breaks / at the end of the night
- By all means go to "everyone" if you have interest in that! If it will make others able / more into dancing it's worth it. Maybe it would also be good to have a discussion at this point about where people should and shouldn't change their clothes, as this may be on folks minds and may also be the thing keeping the more timid from saying "let's make them both 'everyone'"
- I've never seen this voted on in other groups, just done as an obvious good
- These bathrooms aren't as private as one they could get so one could have a lock or some women might be [unintelligible]
- very non-typical male
- good on ye
- The bathrooms are also used for changing clothes and one can change without waiting for a stall. Having it mixed use would change that, creating even more of a wait than there already is now. Transgender can already (and should) use whichever bathroom's gender they identify with.
We haven't decided yet what we're going to do; we'll decide that at our next board meeting, in June.
(The raw data from the poll results is here.)
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