New MCI Terminal will Offer All-Gender Bathrooms, Other Inclusive Features

Kansas City’s new single airport terminal, opening in 2023, will have two all-gender bathrooms, the city’s Aviation Department announced Wednesday.

Justin Meyer, deputy director of aviation, told a City Council committee that officials had been working with the terminal’s architect on designing inclusive and convenient restrooms. They’re expected to include changing rooms for business travelers and others, rooms for nursing mothers and large stalls to accommodate passengers’ luggage. Part of that inclusive focus will be gender equity.

Both men’s and women’s restrooms will have diaper-changing stations, and two of the terminal’s 10 bathroom facilities will be designed for all genders. Meyer said that would not only benefit transgender travelers, but families, too.

“We see it as a benefit to passengers traveling with their children of the opposite gender … likewise for travelers maybe with an elderly parent of the opposite gender,” he said.

Crews broke ground on the new KCI terminal, developed by Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate, in March. One of the airport’s three existing horseshoe terminal buildings has been demolished to make way for the new terminal, and crews are beginning construction work while architects continue to design the facility.

Jordan Pierce, an architect with the leading architecture firm on the project, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, or SOM, said both all-gender bathrooms will be in the secure area of the airport. Gender-specific bathrooms and family restrooms will still be part of the terminal.

The all-gender bathrooms will replace urinals with more stalls with higher partitions for more privacy.

Pierce said the all-gender bathrooms could help alleviate long lines at women’s restrooms.

“We can increase the efficiency in addition to increasing the inclusivity,” he said.

The aviation department’s announcement was a welcome one to Suzanne Wheeler, executive director Mid-America LGBT Chamber of Commerce. She said she has flown with three of her four children, and helping them all to the restroom was a challenge. Family restrooms typically include only one toilet.

“You may hear safety objections,” she said. “I can’t think of anything more safe than a restroom where I can escort my family members into that restroom.”

Wheeler said she believes the all-gender bathrooms will send the signal to prospective residents that Kansas City is accommodating.

There was no opposition voiced at the committee meeting.

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