On Thursday, the Chamber of Deputies returned to two topics that have dominated recent parliamentary debate – perhaps marking a provisional conclusion: the state of toilets in secondary schools, and the national plan for the promotion of LGBTQIA+ rights.
Three motions were put to a vote on Thursday afternoon. A motion from the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) calling for separate boys’ and girls’ toilets was rejected on the grounds that it did not go far enough. Two other motions were passed: one from the Democratic Party (DP) and the Christian Social People’s Party (CSV) against discrimination in school buildings, and another from the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) in support of the national LGBTQIA+ rights plan.
The toilet debate had first been launched in a parliamentary committee over two weeks ago.
According to LSAP MP Claire Delcourt, the ADR had artificially inflated the discussion with buzzwords and deliberately steered it in a certain direction. “The ADR is deliberately waging a culture war,” she said, “It is dividing society and stigmatising people.”
ADR MP Fred Keup rejected the claim, arguing that his party was not the one to start the debate. Invoking freedom of speech, Keup said the ADR – and parents – should be allowed to reject and criticise the government’s school concept and the LGBTQIA+ plan.
Marc Goergen of the Pirate Party criticised the government’s handling of the issue, describing its communication as having done “a great disservice to the entire community.” He warned that the approach would cause “immense problems” for public acceptance later on. “Especially in secondary schools, among young people, the government has created problems that were not necessary,” Goergen said. He expressed hope that the government would improve its communication in future, adding: “Because the only thing you achieve with this is strengthening the right.”
Several MPs lamented that the debate had been brought to the Chamber floor at all. Marc Baum of the Left Party (Déi Lénk) offered a colourful assessment: “I would prefer to spare myself this discussion, because it’s as useless as diarrhoea.” He went on to describe the debate as an expression of “a political Armageddon” and the collapse of one of the coalition partners – namely the CSV. Addressing the DP, Baum added that the CSV “then also stabs you in the back in the form of posts from MP Ricardo Brutus Marquez” – a reference to social media posts shared by the CSV quoting Marquez’s opposition to unisex toilets.
At the close of the debate, Education Minister Claude Meisch once again outlined the concept now planned for the new Lycée Technique du Centre: separate boys’ and girls’ toilets, as well as additional gender-neutral toilets intended to be non-stigmatising and accessible to anyone. The plans also include concepts for safer toilets, which are enclosed at the top and bottom, and washroom areas with basins that are more open to the outside.
