This fall, the single-stall bathrooms on American University’s campus are getting a name change. In the next month and a half, signs that once designated the toilet for men or women will be replaced with the more general term “restroom.”
The switch is more than a cosmetic change. It’s part of a movement on university campuses that recognizes that not everyone fits neatly under the labels of male and female, and that some students or staff may feel uncomfortable using a men’s or women’s restroom. To accommodate them, an increasing number of colleges and universities are designating bathrooms as gender-neutral.
Some students who seek gender-neutral bathrooms — typically single bathrooms that lock rather than multistall facilities — are transgendered men or women and could face questions or harassment from others in the bathroom who believe they don’t belong there, said Brittney Hoffman, campus director for the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition’s GenderYOUTH program. There are also students who, because of the way they look or dress, may get hostile comments in the women’s or men’s bathrooms and choose to avoid them.
“It can be such an anxiety-ridden decision to make a choice that most people make without thinking,” said Hoffman, who helps students advocate for gender-neutral bathrooms. “The arrival of a gender-neutral bathroom, for a lot of students, can be a huge difference in their daily lives.”
There have been pockets of backlash on some campuses to such bathrooms, mostly by conservative groups that oppose gay and transgender rights.
More schools switching
According to a GenderPAC survey conducted in 2007, 141 schools have established gender-neutral restrooms. Illinois schools that have such facilities include the University of Chicago, which has had them since at least 2004, Knox College and the University of Illinois, according to GenderPAC.
American University has an agreement to include gender-neutral bathrooms in new buildings, including the student center that recently opened, said Sara Bendoraitis, director of the university’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally Resource Center. In older buildings, single-stall bathrooms previously designated male or female are being switched to unisex facilities this fall.
Supporters of gender-neutral bathrooms say the extra cost is minimal if they are made a part of new buildings or if existing single-stall bathrooms get a gender-neutral sign.
Bendoraitis says universities need to be conscious of how they serve transgender or gender-variant students.
“Every year we get more and more students already knowing they are transgender or questioning their gender identities,” she said. “We have to be able to … make sure they feel comfortable.”
At least 17 schools, including Ohio State University, New York University and the University of Vermont, have pledged to include gender-neutral bathrooms in their new buildings, said Stephanie Gordon, director of educational programs for NASPA, an association of student affairs administrators.
At the University of Vermont, which just opened a new student center, gender-neutral bathrooms aren’t considered a big deal, said Annie Stevens, assistant vice president for student and campus life.
While it was the university’s transgendered community that requested the non-gendered bathrooms , others, including people who want more privacy, appreciate them too, she said.
“Which is the great thing about inclusion,” Stevens said. “It usually works out for everybody.”
People who have benefited from the addition of single-stall bathrooms also include disabled students, families with small children and people who have a caregiver of the opposite sex, said Brett-Genny Janiczek Beemyn, director of the Stonewall Center at the University of Massachusetts. Beemyn is also a board member of the Transgender Law and Policy Institute in New York, which tracks campus activism around transgender-inclusive policies.
“There’s a recognition this can really help a lot of individuals,” Beemyn said. “It doesn’t take away from anybody’s ability to use the restroom — it just adds more options.”
Others far from neutral
Some people disagree and have opposed construction or designation of such bathrooms.
“There is a nationwide campaign on college campuses to build gender-neutral bathrooms, and in that campaign, gender-neutral is simply code word for transgender,” said Bryan Fischer, executive director of the conservative group Idaho Values Alliance.
Fischer’s organization put pressure on Boise State University this year after a university administrator said a new bathroom could be used by transgender students. The university released a statement saying the bathroom was unisex and intended to meet the needs of disabled people.
“To label these ‘transgender bathrooms’ essentially puts the state on record as normalizing transgenderism, and we think that is a mistake,” Fischer said.
At the University of Georgia, Lambda Alliance, the school’s student lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group, was criticized when members put up gender-neutral bathroom signs on two single-stall facilities near their office.
“It was just kind of shocking and disheartening that people would see being inclusive and helping people as a negative thing,” said Shawna Scott, head of Lambda Alliance.
Students at Georgia plan to ask administrators for gender-neutral bathrooms in new buildings, Scott said. Meanwhile, activists are finding all the single-stall bathrooms on campus and putting together a map to post online.
Student Moira Gillis, who says she sometimes is mistaken for a man because of her short hair and boyish clothes, is happy to help with the effort. She said she often receives hostile stares or comments in women’s restrooms and she prefers a gender-neutral facility.
“I’d get on a bus to go to a gender-neutral bathroom if I could,” Gillis said. “I really do feel like they’re a huge help.”
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Web guide to going gender-neutral
People looking for gender-neutral or single-stall bathrooms can search online through a Web site created by bathroom activists in San Francisco.
At www.safe2pee.org, users can search for “gender free” bathroom locations by city and to add locations to the list. Safe2pee has listings for almost 1,000 bathrooms, including ones in museums and coffee shops and on university campuses, in 296 cities.
Users also can get locations sent to their cell phones, which can be useful while traveling, said Bailey Stevens, one of the site’s founders.
The Web site went online in January and has grown mostly through word of mouth, Stevens said. The site gets about 5,000 hits on a quiet month and up to five times that number after a mention in the news media.
