Toilets are political spaces: inadequate toilet access means limited access to wider space and community. Since 2015 I have worked with others on a series of interdisciplinary research projects collectively known as Around the Toilet (aroundthetoilet.com), which have centred the experiences of trans, queer and disabled people to explore what makes a safe and accessible toilet space. The research sought to consolidate commitments to feminist, queer, trans and disability politics. There was an intuitive and necessary connection between these movements for many of us, who – in some cases – had personal experience of multiple marginalisation across these axes. In this paper, I will interrogate the repercussions of doing work at these political intersections by focusing not so much on the research findings themselves, but on the ways in which the project has been responded to within a context which is anti-expert, anti-‘woke’ and one of perceived scarcity. I will reflect on my experiences as a trans person, leading a public-facing research project which centres trans lives, within a context of increasing trans hostility. I will show how Around the Toilet has at once been understood as too mundane (a waste of taxpayers money; a funny thing to be researching); a fascination (a good journalistic ‘hook’; focus on particular aspects of our work, whilst ignoring others); and a threat to social order (particularly in relation to trans lives). I will argue that - during a time where academics are expected to be ‘public-facing’ - universities need to recognise harms that can come from this, and resource the labour that it takes to mitigate these harms (if the risk is deemed worth taking). I also maintain, however, that in lieu of institutional support (which is often not forthcoming), we need to build solidarities through which we can support one-another as feminist and marginalised researchers working in the neoliberal academy.