SGA passes gender-neutral restroom recommendation

Nearby gender-neutral restrooms

A new website, RefugeRestrooms.org, exists to help people find safe and clean restrooms.

According to the website, its mission is to provide transgender and queer individuals with accessible and gender-neutral restroom.

A search on RefugeRestrooms.org for “Ball State University” comes up with the following results for single-stall restrooms that are not gender-specific:

• Sursa Hall
• The Atrium
• Noyer Complex
• Student Recreation and Wellness Center
• LaFollette Complex
• Unitarian Universalist Church
• Walmart North and South
• China Express
• The Cup
• White Spot Laundry

• The Student Government Association passed a resolution to increase bathroom accessibility for people who do not conform to gender norms.

• The resolution would require gender-neutral bathrooms to be included in any future buildings or renovations.

• The resolution still needs to pass through University Governance and Campus Council before any effects take place.

The Student Government Association passed a resolution recommending the university include at least one single-stall, gender-neutral restroom in any buildings built or remodeled in the future.

Gender-neutral restrooms, also called family restrooms, are helpful for people who are gender non-conforming, for caretakers of the opposite sex and for nursing mothers.

Carli Hendershot, the senator who authored the bill, said the resolution is just a recommendation and is open to what the university wants to do with it. The resolution still has to move through University Governance and Campus Council.

BALL STATE

Family restrooms are already planned for some buildings in the process of renovation or for future renovations on campus.

Kevin Kenyon, associate vice president of facilities planning and management, said Hendershot’s legislation is “very feasible.”

“It’s something we are planning to do,” he said. “One is planned in the Applied Technology Building. We’ll start renovating that one next. Unless something changes, there will be one there.”

Johnson A Complex, which is currently under renovation, will not have a gender-neutral restroom, said Alan Hargrave, director of housing and residence life.

Hendershot said some residence halls have single-use restrooms that are locked. Hargrave said they are typically reserved for conference guests, and there have not been requests to open them for everyday use.

Kenyon said any future restrooms that meet gender-neutral requirements will be single-use restrooms marked for family use and for use by any gender.

“There is no difference [between family and gender-neutral restrooms] — it’s the same thing,” he said. “You can go in there if you are a caretaker or you’ve got a young child that is too old to take into the opposite-sex bathroom. I don’t think they would be marked as gender neutral.”

Residence hall restrooms are a problem for transgender students, especially when a floor is designated as male or female, said Jamie Goebel, president of Spectrum, the campus lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and ally group.

“We still do have gender floors,” he said. “It completely outs the person who is trans on that floor because they don’t look like everyone else or act like everyone else.”

Hendershot said this vote cumulated work that she started in Spring 2013, and this has been her favorite piece of legislation.

“It’s something I’m very passionate about, especially within the LGBT community,” she said. “The people I represent as an SGA rep for Spectrum … are really passionate about [this], also.”

REGIONAL

The resolution and Ball State’s reaction are part of push nationwide to increase accessibility for people who do not conform to gender norms.

Lambda Legal, an organization that represents members of the LGBTQ community, states that transgender individuals should use the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity, but gender-neutral restrooms are a better solution.

“Transgender people should not be singled out as the only employees using any particular restroom,” according to Lambda Legal’s Restroom FAQ. “But providing individual or unisex restrooms is not a bad idea because they do provide more options for [transgender] people.”

Purdue and Ohio State are two universities that have already taken steps toward restroom accommodations.

Purdue’s campus has more than 30 single-occupancy restrooms, and all new buildings will have gender-neutral restrooms, according to the Purdue Exponent.

Three residence halls at Ohio State have gender-neutral bathrooms, and students can request to live on a residence hall floor with gender-neutral restrooms only, according to the Lantern, Ohio State’s newspaper. One residence hall will have two floors with gender-neutral bathrooms only by the next school year.

HYPERLINK:
“Purdue Exponent” http://www.purdueexponent.org/features/article_3cfd6e3a-5566-56e4-b1d7-049c35a23632.html
“the Lantern, Ohio State’s newspaper” http://thelantern.com/2014/01/ohio-state-adding-gender-neutral-bathrooms-dorm-option/

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