The University of California, Davis, is remodeling the locker rooms in its recreation center. These new “universal locker rooms” will be “inclusive of members with disabilities and members of all gender identities” and will replace the rec center’s current, sex-segregated ones.

A floor plan on the university’s website shows that there will still be sex-segregated toilet areas. Men and women, however, will share the same shower and changing spaces. The locker room will also include “individual private cabanas with floor-to-ceiling doors, shower and changing area; individual private changing rooms with floor-to-ceiling doors and seating; individual private toilet rooms with floor-to-ceiling doors; vanity areas; and locker rentals and day-use lockers.”

From the university:

This project will create the first fully inclusive locker room space on campus. The work encompasses the demolition of the existing locker space and the creation of a new foot washing station, modern lockers and new private, accessible changing spaces and showers, including 8 private, individual changing spaces, 14 private showers, and 6 private, accessible shower/changing rooms. The project also includes the reconfiguration of the restroom area to allow for a 4-stall men’s room, a 4-stall women’s room and an 8-stall gender inclusive room.

Based on the floor plan, it appears that the only real “common” area in the locker room will be the space in front of the lockers and the sink areas. It does not appear that there are doors on the men’s or women’s toilet rooms (which is typical of a locker room). Universal locker rooms are growing in popularity (UC Berkeley opened one in 2018). They promise inclusivity and privacy for those who want it, advocates say. But women will still have to share these spaces with men, and people may change in the common area instead of in the designated changing rooms. The social dynamic of a sex-segregated locker room will change as well.

Look to Virginia for a reason why men in women’s locker rooms is a bad idea. Last year, Richard Cox, a tier-III sex offender, was allowed access to women’s locker rooms at multiple public school pools and rec centers because he identified as a woman. Universal locker rooms explicitly invite men into female-only spaces — and creeps will prowl in women’s spaces if given the opportunity. The safest thing to do, it would seem, would be to keep locker rooms sex-segregated and add a separate locker room or changing space for individuals who identify with a gender other than their biological sex. Then, punish any man who tries to invade a women-only space.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has said that the state will do everything in its power to protect transgender and gender-nonconforming people from President Donald Trump’s executive orders, one of which will “affirmatively protect all-female athletic opportunities and all-female locker rooms.” Public universities that replace men’s and women’s locker rooms with trans- or gender-inclusive ones should be held accountable.