Since the mid-1990s, the number of public toilets in Britain that are open and effectively available as sites for sex between men has reduced dramatically. In 2004 Clara Greed (2004) had already noted a drop of 40 percent in the number of public toilets across the country, while a state policy of austerity in Britain since 2010 has meant that many more public toilets have closed. Those toilets that remain are likely to have changed significantly. Several years ago, I explored how public toilets were being materially reorganized to make activities within them more open to view (Jeyasingham 2010). I used several toilets in Manchester, England, as case studies to show how greater acceptance of sexual minorities as citizens with rights to protection from homophobic abuse had developed in tandem with greater expectations about appropriate behavior and policing practices that, more effectively than before, mitigated against homoerotic activity in public toilets. All of those toilets have since closed, and Manchester, which has a population of around five hundred thousand people, now has only one functioning local authority public toilet (George 2011). While restrooms have not necessarily been closing with the same frequency elsewhere, material adaptations and increased surveillance, both “natural” (the opening up of spaces to general view) and technological, now seem to be a feature of public toilets in many locations across the West (Dalton 2008; Braverman 2010). This shift has occurred alongside the increased social and political inclusion of certain forms of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) identities in the same global regions.

中文翻译：

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公共厕所的关闭、影响和持续的酷儿潜力

自 1990 年代中期以来，英国开放且有效作为男性性交场所的公共厕所数量急剧减少。2004 年，Clara Greed (2004) 已经注意到全国公共厕所的数量下降了 40%，而英国自 2010 年以来的紧缩政策意味着更多的公共厕所已经关闭。剩下的厕所可能已经发生了重大变化。几年前，我探索了如何对公共厕所进行实质性重组，以使其中的活动更加开放（Jeyasingham 2010）。我在英国曼彻斯特用过好几个厕所，作为案例研究，展示了性少数群体作为享有免受同性恋虐待的权利的公民是如何随着对适当行为和警务实践的更高期望而发展起来的，这比以前更有效地减轻了公共厕所中的同性恋活动。自那以后，所有这些厕所都关闭了，拥有约 50 万人口的曼彻斯特现在只有一个地方当局公共厕所在运作（George 2011）。虽然其他地方的洗手间不一定以相同的频率关闭，但材料的适应性和加强的监视，无论是“自然的”（向一般视野开放空间）还是技术性的，现在似乎都是许多地方公共厕所的一个特征。韦斯特（道尔顿 2008 年；布雷弗曼 2010 年）。