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I like to think of myself as pretty progressive.

I’ve been to my fair share of Queer Mafia parties at Babylon – for which washrooms are always temporarily marked “gender-neutral” for the night, in keeping with the needs of genderqueer and trans patrons in attendance.

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Despite this, I can’t say I was entirely prepared for the scale of progressivity in Gastown while I visited Vancouver for the first time last month.

Despite boasting of itself as Canada’s eldest historical neighbourhood, every washroom I used, in every bar or restaurant, was hardly historic at all. Rather, they were quite post-modern; Gastown happens to host the highest volume of gender-neutral lavatories in the country.

Aside from personal stalls to do one’s business, patrons are welcomed into an open, gender-neutral space where they can gaze at their male, female or non-gender-conforming selves in a communal mirror, wash their hands, and even flirt amongst themselves.