Unisex washrooms may come to campus

[dragon wench]

I seem to be on a roll with the News stories today Ah well, this one is interesting too (IMO)...I'm not quite sure what to think....


Unisex washrooms may come to campus


Nicole Girardin
National Post

Friday, March 23, 2007


Washrooms on university campuses across Canada may be the latest frontier in the campaign to accommodate all sexualities.

Student groups at the University of Manitoba, the University of Winnipeg, and Toronto’s Ryerson University are lobbying for alternatives to conventional male and female washrooms to protect the safety and privacy of transgendered students.

The campaign comes despite student bodies and university authorities being unable to give any figures for how many transgendered students they need to accommodate.

“I think it’s important for a couple of reasons. There are individuals on campus who don’t feel safe going into either the male or female washrooms, that whatever bathroom they go into they feel ostracized,” said Vivian Belik, VP of student services for the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association.

“Gender-neutral washrooms are important because it deconstructs the idea of gender as a whole.”
However, some students are critical of the campaigns and believe that gender-neutral washrooms are an example of what happens when political correctness knows no limit.

“No boundaries equals chaos,” said one person registering their disagreement with the University of Winnipeg’s proposal to implement gender-neutral washrooms on campus.

Another student said, “Honest to god, how many transgenders actually go to school here? Instead, spend your money on something everyone can use.”

Chris Wright, education and campaign coordinator for RyePride, Ryerson University’s group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students, said it is campaigning “ for “all-gender” washrooms so as to be more inclusive.

He believes that single-stall washrooms — featuring just one toilet — will appeal to a larger portion of the student population.

“Our education campaign has been around promoting the wide variety of people who would benefit from the washrooms,” said Mr. Wright. “Single use washrooms offer increased security, which was a safety concern for a number of people at Ryerson, not just the trans-community.”

At the University of Winnipeg, the plan under discussion is to convert an existing, ground-floor handicapped washroom into one designated for all-gender use. There would still be bathrooms for men and women.

“We would like to create these bathrooms into ‘all accessible’ washrooms that would be accessible to wheelchairs, could have a baby-changing station, perhaps a foot-washing station for Muslim students, and would happen to be gender-neutral. The main idea being as inclusive/sensitive as possible,” said Ms. Belik.

While the accessibility of the washroom may increase, Ms. Belik realizes that wait times for the washroom might as well.

“There would be more people using these bathrooms and potentially a longer wait for people with wheelchairs, who already have a shortage of bathrooms on campus,” said Ms. Belik.

There is also no way of ensuring that people who use the specially designated washrooms are doing so for security’s sake instead of trying to avoid long line-ups that can form in conventional washrooms.

The University of Manitoba faces similar logistical problems, since there are only a limited number of single-stall washrooms on campus, with some buildings not having any at all.

The washrooms are designed to meet the needs of people transitioning from one sex to the other, transvestites, transsexuals, and all others whose identities don’t fit into conventional sexual norms.
Such washrooms — which advocates call “all-gender” or “gender-neutral” washrooms — are already in place at McGill and Simon Fraser universities.

Ultimately, using the washrooms, as one member of administration pointed out, is a choice-- universally accessible washrooms won’t appeal to everyone.

Mr. Wright, RyePride’s education and campaigns coordinator, insists that the need for this should transcend politics and sexual orientation: “Most people can think of a time when they haven’t felt safe in a public washroom. It isn’t about who you are, it’s about what you need to do, and everybody needs to go to the washroom.”

[Claudius]

I've never been in a washroom where there weren't stalls enclosing each toilet, with the exception of the men's urinals. But men's rooms also have stalls as not everything can be done standing up haha. I guess if they don't have stalls then they should build some but otherwise the transgendered have to suck it up and be clothed in front of non-transgendered people I think.

[QuenGalad]

Hmm, nothing unusual to me...

In high school, we had only one single changing room + toilets, and my class was having PE girls and boys together because of schedule, and, well, we got used to changing clothes and using the toilets in an unisex way... We just had to. Two out of 22 girls who didn't like it went to the toilet (it had stalls) to change. There were 18 boys in the class, too. And we got on really well.

I daresay it was good for the guys education, knowing that women are normal people, that "woman presence=sex" is not always true... We talked about bras sizes (and does it hurt when you have an erection wearing jeans ) period duration - things no one tells the boys in Poland. I'm really glad it was that way. And it was simply because a lack of space.

[VonDondu]

Most building codes that I'm aware of don't require separate facilities for men and women. When my mother was a child, she went to a school that had a unisex bathroom. When my grandmother was a child, she went to a public school that had a unisex outhouse. When people whine that having separate facilities is an absolute necessity and a universal human tradition, they seem rather prissy and historically ignorant to me, and I roll my eyes when they complain about "political correctness". They seem to have no idea how progress takes place. One hundred years ago, traditionalists complained when progressives insisted on making separate restrooms for men and women the universal standard. Aren't you glad the "politically correct" people won the day back then? Thanks to them, we as a species made progress. Yet some people complain about attempts to make more progress.

Don't get me wrong. There are lots of ways to address the issue of changing all restrooms on campus to accommodate just a handful of students. But the argument that whines about "political correctness" is the weakest one, in my opinion. There's no reason to be insensitive to the needs of transgender students. I think this issue is best approached from an economic perspective. The polite way to fight the change is to say, "We're sorry, we'd like to accommodate you, but we don't have the necessary funds." (EDIT: Lack of money is the reason why my mother and grandmother had to make do with what they had.) Either that, or find someone else to discriminate against. For example, my own argument against unisex bathrooms on campus would be, "I'd love to accommodate the needs of transgender students, but I'm appalled by the idea of sharing all toilets with all of the men on campus. Most men have the manners of poop-tossing apes. Until all men learn how to use toilets correctly, I'll be completely opposed to it." You can call me a prissy bitch if you want, but I'm pretty sure that my side will win the argument. I feel so privileged to be living in this period in history.