Remove Restrictions on Gender Neutral Bathrooms in Schools in Aotearoa

The issue

The number of students coming out as non-binary and gender-diverse identities is constantly increasing. These students are not always comfortable using gendered bathrooms (male/female bathrooms), so they end up avoiding using the bathroom during the school day. The current building code in New Zealand needs to be updated to accommodate for non-binary and transgender students the same way it does for binary cisgender students. While this may not have a direct effect on you personally, students with diverse genders deserve to feel comfortable the same way you do. Our goal is to update the current building code compliance document: Ministry of Education Toilet Design: Requirements and Reference Design, which was last revised in 2017. The revisions we want to make are to the ratio of gendered bathrooms to students so that non-gendered/unisex bathrooms included in that ratio. We require that these bathrooms be easily accessible to all students in an area that will minimise the time lost during class.

This petition had 3,148 supporters

The issue

The number of students coming out as non-binary and gender-diverse identities is constantly increasing. These students are not always comfortable using gendered bathrooms (male/female bathrooms), so they end up avoiding using the bathroom during the school day. The current building code in New Zealand needs to be updated to accommodate for non-binary and transgender students the same way it does for binary cisgender students. While this may not have a direct effect on you personally, students with diverse genders deserve to feel comfortable the same way you do. Our goal is to update the current building code compliance document: Ministry of Education Toilet Design: Requirements and Reference Design, which was last revised in 2017. The revisions we want to make are to the ratio of gendered bathrooms to students so that non-gendered/unisex bathrooms included in that ratio. We require that these bathrooms be easily accessible to all students in an area that will minimise the time lost during class.

The Decision Makers

Ministry of Building and Construction NZ
Ministry of Building and Construction NZ
Ministry of Education NZ
Ministry of Education NZ

Petition Updates