Gender Neutral Bathrooms On Campus

Most don’t explicitly look into the complexity of a transgender person’s life and all the questions or problems one might face: Do I use the men’s or the women’s bathroom? Is it appropriate to use this locker room? Those are only two of the many questions a transgender person might run into on a daily basis because of how others would see the situation, how the people who may have a sneaking suspicion that the woman they saw go into the ladies’ bathroom isn’t actually female by their definition, or how it could also seem strange to see that same person go into the mens’ bathroom. These all lead to dysphoria in any person’s situation in public places due to the fact that many choose to taunt or mock the person; however, with the help of Title IX these questions could start to vanish from the thoughts of many transgender students which Blad exemplifies with a quote in her article:

College dorms are always a great experience for your first year of college because we get to meet new people. There is just one problem the bathrooms they could be changed. There should be no CO-ED bathroom, install more showers, give each room their own bathroom, or put locks on the shower. This is a problem for me because I am not used to someone I don't know coming in the bathroom while I'm in the shower. I feel uncomfortable knowing that someone else is in there. There should be a change in residence hall bathrooms that make students feel more comfortable and safe while being in the bathroom.

I feel that the gender-neutral bathrooms in schools are not a very good idea because as a woman I feel that not a very common or safe idea. I would not feel safe because I do not want to share a bathroom with men. One thing that could happen in the gender-neutral bathrooms is sexual assault. Women and girls are the number one victims in these cases of sexual assault. I also feel that I do not have my personal or private place to use anymore. By adding the males in the females and females to males, gives us both the feeling of los-ing our privacy of a girl and a guy to do what we need to in the bathrooms. I feel that having separate bathrooms will help with the safety issues of the males walking into a fe-male bathroom and vice versa. Overall,

Transgender rights and policies have always been an ongoing debate. In the article, “Bathroom Battlegrounds and Penis Panics,” Schilt and Westbrook (2015) argued that in order to push gender equality forward, we must consider the rights of transgender people by allowing them to have access to bathrooms that support their gender identity rather than their biological sex. In doing so, authors believed that it would make progress in alleviating discrimination against transgender people. However, in this conscious effort to fight for transgender rights and their access to sex-segregated spaces,

It is a known fact that both men and women use the restroom. What many are not aware of, is that using the toilet in public areas reinforces the differences between male and female. For instance, the very first thing any individual sees when entering a public restroom is the little dolls of a man or a woman as an indication of a female restrooms and or the male restrooms. This simple sign reaffirms the sexual differences of gender and also unconsciously the individual’s identity for that matter. The concept of gender neutral bathrooms is to break the imaginary wall of gender separation thus allowing either sex to use one single restroom. If we think about it, in our home we share one restroom, and are pretty much accepting of the fact that we all use the toilet. The book states that gender salience is the relation of gender across activities and spaces. The book further discusses that when teachers would place children alphabetically versus by gender the importance of gender reduced. Gender is a persistent element in any school. The concept is simple when it boils down to education the main purpose is to place the students together by groups of the ones that are getting the material and are able to proceed to the next or placing them in a group of students that need more time grasping the given material and curriculum. Although gender salience is like a roller coaster in different parts of the elementary school experience the flow of gender is a persistent element in education. Gendered bathrooms, as previously discussed reinforces the differences between male and female. Back in the Victorian era, they created restrooms for women with a special room that had a resting area before entering the section in which the restrooms were located. This was primary because back then it was not lady like to dispose bodily fluids. They believe that women should keep such matters private, and it was pretty much unheard of for women to even use the restrooms the way it is indented. Till this day many women restrooms still have a resting area before entering the restroom section. Bathrooms are designed with an assumption that everyone is heterosexual. Thus not allowing the possibility of that many individuals don’t

More and more kids and teens are realizing that, they are not who they want to be. Meaning that, they want to, or have already changed their gender identity. This doesn’t seem like the problem, but these kids, teens, and even adults don't have the rights we have on a regular daily bases. According to Discovery Education, it says that, these kids and teens aren’t allowed to use the bathroom of the gender they choose to be. This is a big problem throughout the United States, especially in elementary, middle, and high schools. The government also took away the law stating that transgender people, are to use

Here in Canada, this issue has been brought forward in both communities and provincial level of concerns. To take a look closer to home, the city of Toronto had witnessed the complexity of this issue in the past years. A Toronto transgender teen who identifies as a male, was banned from using his high school boys restroom, and was forced to leave school grounds and search for a public bathroom at a gas station. Concerns were mentioned for the safety of Spencer, and also how he felt uncomfortable being forced to use the women’s restroom; however, several parents and students agreed with how the school was taking action to this problem. After a petition was enacted by fellow supportive students, Spencer was allowed to freely use the restrooms at his high school.

The changing norms of the generation has brought upon commotion between various states because of the presidents judgement. The transgender bathroom policy allows transgender students to use the bathroom they identify as and not by the sex on their birth certificate (Fox News, 2016). The transgender bathroom policy has both successes and failure to ensure safety for transgender students resulting to its change being for not only trans-gender. Gender neutral bathrooms allows safety for those who are not only transgender, but also a part of the LGBTQ community, etc. but it causes a conflict with gender segregation. Adding additional bathrooms to suite other gender preferences costs more money and not everyone is going to accept what they walk into the bathroom and see. The gender neutral bathroom policy should be taken off of hold and be put into action because everything is constantly changing and those who do not identify as the sex they were assigned at birth are at risk for harm.

People tend to look passed the ones whom this debate affects. A survey was taken of over 2,000 transgender college students on the effects of the bathroom debate. This survey showed that the suicide attempt rate "increased 40% among those who said they had been denied access to a bathroom" (Scherer et al n.p.). People who are not considered normal by societal standards may have a hard time coping with the hate they receive. This hate can lead to extremes such as the attempt to commit suicide. The allowance or denial of access to a bathroom led to an increase in suicide attempt rates. Those not affected by the issue do not realize the emotional and physical hardship that transgender people go through. In Washington, D.C., a survey of 100 transgender people was taken. In this survey, "70% said they had been denied restroom access or harassed, and 58% said they has avoided going out in public because they feared being able to find a bathroom" (Scherer et al n.p.). The accommodations of both sides of the debate would allow everyone to feel safer in his or her own community. Family restrooms allow complete privacy and do not discrimination based on gender. Access to these types of facilities would never be denied. Allowing people access to the bathroom they choose opened an entire new side of the issue in

When I President of the Residence Hall Association at North Carolina Central University, there was a student that was transitioning from a male to a female that identified as, she. She felt that she could use the restrooms on the female floor. This was an issue because she was still identified as, he, on her driver’s license. She approached me and said “Can you help me I feel, hated, mistreated, alone, and scared”, the only thing I could tell her was, “ I can see if we have space available for a single room with a restroom included”. That hurt me because I was in this leadership position, representing residence life, and we didn’t even have a gender-neutral restroom for a soon to be transgender to take a shower in peacefully. Unfortunately, that student moved off campus, and had to pay a housing termination fee, and that was one less student in a room. I want to be that young student affairs professional that anybody can talk to; I also want to make sure we have facilities on campus that cater to the LGBTQ community. If there isn’t a lavender housing LLC on campus, lets start one. We can start by putting adapting a lavender housing floor LLC, then moving towards a lavender building that provides knowledge about the LGBTQA culture, and people who have contributed to the

In the summer time of 2015, it was shown in a CNN article that “two-thirds of Americans were in favor in gay marriage” soon to become a law change in most states to make it acceptable for people of the same sex to live together as partners and live the life they wish to as a married couple. This quick acceptance in our country shows the urgency of openness to everyone around, prior to the summer of 2015 an issue that our country faced was the issue of acceptance of others that would classify themselves as a member of the LGBTQ community. As the campus of Southeast Missouri State University constantly breaks new records of enrollment and students choosing to live on campus the universities new President is embarking on a new way to market the university, diversity. As the acceptance with members in the LGBTQ community, more and more students are opening up at home, expressing and or finding out their true selves in their college years. Limiting the residence halls to same birth sex only is limiting the growth as individuals of the new students who come in that might be included or interested in the LGBTQ community. Some students are afraid to come out expressing themselves, having the opportunity to room with a person who is of the opposite gender or “trans” can be very beneficial. Like in the article “So Roomie, Let’s Talk” students don’t always understand one another’s diversity which can lead to some very terrible things. “Bullying peaks in middle school and decreases in high school but can continue in college.” Students are constantly facing peer pressure and judgment in the story by Slotnik the two roommates barely communicated amongst each other, once the truth came out about one of the roommates the others life soon ended.(Slotnik) If the campus would allow its students to choose everything some students' identities might be

Some people have a problem with transgender people using the ¨wrong restroom.¨ In the article “Seat of Unrest” by Sara GoodYear she explains that ¨The board is voting on whether he should be allowed to use the boys restroom at Gloucester High

The U.S. federal government is backing the issue of gender neutral bathrooms. As Lisa Rein, publisher of an article in The Washington Post, writes, “The federal government is strongly urging employers to give transgender employees access to bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity, marking a new policy front in the fast-moving campaign for transgender equality” (Rein). Rein argues that bathrooms need to be made neutral, as it discriminates members of the LBGT community. Essentially, she argues throughout her article that emotional issues are the biggest reason to allow this. She states, “Among the many forms of discrimination advocates for transgender men and women say they face on the job,

In past generations, it has been clear to society that males and females use segregated bathrooms. It is also known that the rate of transgender people has been growing over the past years. Transgender people constantly face troubles when using a bathroom in public. Nevertheless, as society has become more aware of the transgender population and the issues that they face, many schools have had to decide how they will respond about the issue of school bathrooms when students identify themselves as transgender. A school should be able to provide separate facilities based on sex, but must allow transgender students access to the facility which matches their gender identity.

When the applied the focus no longer on learning, it flips on to when and where a person should use the bathroom. If a student does not have the ability to use the bathroom they are comfortable with then what should they do? Schools do not normally have gender neutral bathrooms unless it is in the faculty lounge or an area only accessible to non-students. Those bathrooms can be all the way across campus depending on where that