Around the country, transgender and gender nonconforming students are often singled out and ostracized for expressing their identity in school. According to a survey by the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network, 59 percent of transgender students are denied access to restrooms that match their gender identity. Some members of P.R.I.D.E. (People Rallying in Defense of Equality), the LGBTQ+ support organization at Northwood, have introduced the idea to make the school safer for these students through the incorporation of gender-neutral bathrooms. A gender-neutral bathroom would create a collective space for people of any gender or people who have no gender as opposed to a designated bathroom for only male or female students.
“P.R.I.D.E. is constantly brainstorming and discussing ideas for ways to positively impact the Northwood student body,” school social worker and P.R.I.D.E. club advisor Rachael Norris said. “One such idea is the possibility of having gender neutral bathrooms. The issue of gender neutral bathrooms is one that comes up at many schools and businesses around the country. The teenagers in P.R.I.D.E. are very thoughtful people, and they are working to support all Northwood students in order to make their environment a safe and inclusive place to come to school.”
Transgender junior Nikolai Mather discussed the lack of options for transgender students at the school.
“It kind of reinforces this feeling of, ‘I’m an other, I’m not wanted here and because I was born biologically female, that doesn’t make me who I am—a man,’” Mather said.
Agender senior Aggie Puckett had similar sentiments and suggested that creating a gender-neutral bathroom could be one of the solutions to such problems.
“[Creating a gender-neutral bathroom] breaks down that mold in your head where you think, ‘Oh, they’re trans, so they’re not normal; they’re different than the default,’” Puckett said. “We don’t want [the gender binary] to be the default anymore. Representation is important; it’s key, and we don’t have that.”
Near the end of the 2014-2015 school year, P.R.I.D.E. split into committees. One group of about 15 students concentrated on physical changes in the school, like the addition of gender-neutral bathrooms. Although P.R.I.D.E. is still in the process of reforming and regrouping for this school year, many of its members want to make the project a priority for the upcoming year. The proposal isn’t yet concrete, but a few students have suggested changing the gendered bathrooms on the 200 hall across from Student Services into gender-neutral spaces.
Many transgender and gender nonconforming students are not comfortable using the bathroom that matches their gender for a variety of reasons, including a fear of harassment or violence.
“I myself am transgender, so it’s kind of hard,” senior Jean Berry said. “I identify as a male, but I don’t really want to go in the boys’ bathroom with cisgender boys. Usually, I just go in the girls’ bathroom because I’m more comfortable in there, but since it doesn’t really match my identity, that’s kind of weird for some people.”
Lucas Van Duinen, a transgender sophomore, has also experienced discomfort when trying to choose which bathroom to use.
“It’s horribly awkward and uncomfortable to use the wrong bathroom and to feel like you don’t belong in that sort of spot,” Van Duinen said. “Furthermore, if you do use the wrong restroom, and if people know that you are transgender or gender nonconforming, it’s going to be harder for people to validate your gender identity.”
Many LGBTQ+ youth experience harassment in numerous aspects of their lives, especially in under-supervised places like school bathrooms. According to a report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, transgender people are 28 percent more likely to experience physical violence than those who are gender normative.
“There have been cases where people literally are beat up in these restrooms because they aren’t congruent with [the norm], and they get called slurs,” Mather said. “It’s terrifying, honestly. Having gender-neutral bathrooms would provide a safe place.”
According to a national survey by the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network, 75 percent of transgender youth feel unsafe at school. In fact, according to the same survey, transgender students have significantly lower GPAs, are more likely to miss school out of safety concerns and are less likely to plan on continuing their education. Some fear that allowing students of all genders in a private area like the bathroom could be problematic, leading to inappropriate conduct or bullying in less-supervised areas.
“It’s definitely a big concern, because there are people that would exploit that, but I feel like the benefits outweigh the risks heavily,” Mather said. “[Some] kids here aren’t comfortable with using the bathroom at all; I have friends who literally go in the morning and then wait the entire day to go when they get home. They just don’t feel safe at school, and something needs to be done about that, regardless of issues with people doing bad stuff in there.”
Some students are made uncomfortable by the thought of community gender-neutral bathrooms but support the idea of single-user options.
“When it comes to school, the restroom is sort of a safe haven for most girls,” senior Miranda Svirk said. “I don’t think [community gender-neutral bathrooms] should be a thing, because a lot of people need that [gender] separation…. I think in general, [single-user bathrooms] would be the best idea if they wanted to do gender-neutral bathrooms, because you get the ultimate privacy.”
Some schools utilize single-user, gender-neutral bathrooms to combat the problems associated with their installation. However, according to principal Justin Bartholomew, Northwood doesn’t currently have adequate access to such facilities. An obstacle in having to build new bathrooms or convert old ones to be gender nonspecific is that these processes depend heavily on cost and sufficient funding.
“We can’t even get [the money] to put a single stall into the men’s bathroom that doesn’t have one,” Bartholomew said. “In some of the men’s bathrooms, you can be sitting on the toilet and looking at the person next to you, and I was told that they did not have money for dividers.”
The addition of gender-neutral bathrooms at Northwood would first involve a submitted proposal to the school administration, which would then be brought to Central Services. The school would then have to submit a financial proposal in order to receive funding from the county for any bathroom revisions. Bartholomew discussed the implications of such a plan, citing a lack of funds as the main reason why the project might not be able to be carried out right away. However, with potential renovations coming to Northwood in the near future, Bartholomew said a gender-neutral bathroom project may have a place in such modifications.
Despite the controversy and limitations surrounding the creation of gender-neutral bathrooms, P.R.I.D.E. still has a common goal.
“Even if we don’t get the gender-neutral bathroom, which is obviously the ultimate goal—to have that safe place, it’s going to start a discussion, and it’s going to inform people,” agender senior Minx Taylor said. “That’s another thing that we want.”
– By Becca Heilman