A Melbourne council is dealing with the fallout from a divisive petition against gender-neutral toilets.
The petition was presented to the Hobsons Bay City Council at its meeting in Melbourne's west on Tuesday night with more than a thousand signatures.
One woman was reportedly abused with sexist remarks and protesters shouted outside the council meeting where the petition was discussed.
Hobsons Bay councillors had been considering a public toilet strategy document which included plans for more loos in the municipality, the cleaning and redevelopment of public toilets and a review of "all existing toilets to ensure facilities are fit for purpose, safe and inclusive".
During the meeting, Councillor Daria Kellander said women did not want to use unisex toilets because of fears for their safety and a lack of cleanliness.
She also said the council was "taking another space away from women and girls where men can linger without question", accused the other councillors of silencing her as a woman and spoke of her Muslim friends not being comfortable using existing public unisex toilets that are near a mosque in the municipality.
Gender neutral toilets have become more common in public places in recent years as more people identify as gender diverse, but in some cases the move has sparked backlash from those who want dedicated men's and women's toilets.
The council area already has a number of unisex public toilets that are standalone cubicles.
During the meeting, Cr Kellander was asked if she would support transgender women using women's-only toilets, but she did not answer that question.
Cr Kellander, who was the Liberal candidate for the seat of Williamstown at the last federal election, proposed an amendment that would see any public toilet blocks in the area with three or more cubicles include a women's-only toilet.
She told the ABC she was no longer a Liberal Party member and she put forward the motion because she wanted residents to have a choice of toilet type.
Cr Kellander's claim about her Muslim friends' concerns was disputed by other councillors in the meeting who said council consulted with the mosque about the unisex toilets and council had been told unisex toilets were appropriate.
The mosque involved declined to comment to the ABC.
In-person insults, online threats associated with meeting
Cr Kellander also told the council meeting that Sean Mulcahy, who is a campaigner for Rainbow Local Government, had confirmed that having men's, women's and gender-neutral toilets was "an acceptable and reasonable position".
Dr Mulcahy who was at the meeting, told the ABC he was surprised to be name checked because he had "never interacted with" Cr Kellander.
He said it was reasonable to have men's, women's and gender-neutral toilets as long as they were inclusive.
Cr Kellander told the ABC the pair had never met and said she was referring to comments from Dr Mulcahy's Twitter account.
The ABC has been told by multiple people that there were a small number of protesters at the council meeting, with a man on a megaphone shouting anti-COVID-19 vaccine slogans outside the building, while one person said a protester inside the council chamber told a woman in the gallery "to bend over".
It's unclear what prompted the protesters to attend the meeting.
Cr Kellander said she was unaware of the behaviour of some of the protesters and believed "safety is important for everybody".
A Facebook post Cr Kellander made about security measures in the lead-up to the meeting attracted threatening messages towards councillors.
One man wrote: "If councillors and politicians need protection from the people there is only one way that is going to end".
A woman responded to that comment with a picture of a guillotine.
Cr Kellander said she had been unaware of those comments on her Facebook page and found them "disgusting and I don't condone that".
She said she planned to remove the comments.
Mayor says petition 'inaccurate and confusing'
Hobsons Bay Mayor Tony Briffa, who was born with a variation of sex characteristics, said the council's motion was about planning for new public toilets and upgrades and was not about gender-neutral toilets.
"It seems to me that the basis for the petition is inaccurate and confusing to residents because the council is not proposing to convert public toilets to become gender neutral," she said.
She said the petition presented to council which had more than 1,000 signatures included the names of people living in countries like the United States, Saudi Arabia, Canada and Morocco and "does not reflect the actual number of local residents that signed it".
The petition was organised by Dean Hurlston, who is the vice president of a group called Council Watch. He estimated about half of the signatures came from Hobsons Bay residents.
He does not live in the area but said he started the petition after a group of residents told him "council was considering expanding its genderless toilets and there was a number of women who felt that women's toilets should remain".
Mr Hulston said he was a gay man and the petition was not targeted at transgender people.
"I had a conversation with Cr Kellander to ensure I was not supporting something that was anti-trans," he said.
Mr Hurlston said "the trans community is welcome to use whatever facility they identify with and that is not negotiable".
Melbourne transgender community advocate Anastasia Le said it was important that conversations that included the transgender and gender diverse community were carried out respectfully.
"Everybody needs to go to the toilet and it shouldn't be political," she said.
Ms Le said her community was resilient but wanted greater support to achieve equality.
All councillors bar Cr Kellander voted in support of the council's public toilet policy.
