Introduction This article explores issues relating to toilet provision in queer spaces. With a specific focus on the implementation of gender neutral toilets, it interrogates both practical and symbolic issues of inclusivity and accessibility. Methods The findings presented in this paper are based on 12 semi-structured interviews that were conducted and analysed in 2020. The data was analysed thematically, utilising an inductive approach to analysis. Results The results from this study highlight that spaces often considered ‘inclusionary’ operate within a number of ‘exclusionary’ frameworks. These unspoken and informal ‘rules’ and practices operate to exclude people considered ‘undesirable’ and function to uphold power structures that privilege cisgender, white gay men. Conclusions This article extends our understanding of the ways in which people engage with, and access, both gender neutral and sex-segregated toilets. Through an analysis of complex issues relating to accessibility, inclusivity and the politicisation of queer spaces, this article argues that the implementation of gender neutral toilets holds strong practical and symbolic power within a heteronormative, cis-normative society. Policy Implications The results from this study indicate that providing more gender neutral spaces improves accessibility for a range of people, but also has significant political power in challenging cis-normative, heteronormative standards.

Queer spaces have gained increasing attention academically with a range of studies exploring the construction of such spaces. This article addresses the spatial and social practices and processes that occur within these spaces that perpetuate exclusion based on race. Drawing on ethnographic data collected through semi-structured interviews and participant observations conducted in Birmingham’s ‘gay village’, we argue that gendered perceptions of racialised masculinities and femininities create unique experiences for men and women from minoritised ethnicities. We argue that queer spaces, which are often assumed to transgress and challenge social norms actually maintain, uphold and perpetuate white, patriarchal norms and can therefore be considered a microcosm of broader society. In doing so, we advance criminological thought by adopting a zemiological framework that centres social harm rather than relying on legally defined incidents of crime.

The nature of the Criminal Justice System in the United Kingdom has been argued to disproportionately impact specific groups of people, in the way they are policed and sentenced. This chapter addresses the way that gender and class impact on people’s experiences of probation in the context of substance use. The chapter draws upon semi-structured interviews with ten practitioners and eight service users of the probation service. The analysis of these interviews highlights how intersectional oppressions impact on how individuals navigate through the Criminal Justice System, and the influence that substance use has had on that journey. It will show that those who are from lower class backgrounds are likely to stay in the Criminal Justice System for longer, and face heightened issues with finance and housing, than those from middle-upper class backgrounds. It will also highlight how higher levels of domestic violence, and an increased likelihood of engagement with sex work for female service users, impacts on their substance use and offending. This will demonstrate, through an intersectional lens, the way that females and those from lower class backgrounds face numerous challenges that influence how they experience probation and their ability to desist from crime.

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