Current Events Series #9: LAMBDA Moves Forward with Gender-Neutral Restroom Initiative

by Blayde Alcabes

Transgender students enrolled at York College of Pennsylvania are not always comfortable or safe using one of the public restrooms on campus, but their options are limited.

For that reason, LAMBDA, an on-campus organization dedicated to the LGBT community and its allies, has created an initiative to make all single-stall (private) restrooms gender-neutral.

LAMBDA, through its collaboration with Phillips N. Thomas Hornbuckle, the director of the Intercultural Student Life and Global Programming office, has identified all of the single-stall gender-neutral restrooms available on campus and is preparing for the next step in the process.

The organization identified single-stall or gender-neutral restrooms in the Appell Life Sciences Building, Willman Business Center, Student Union and Humanities Center. LAMBDA has not identified any other single-stall or gender-neutral restrooms on campus.

“We are now working with facilities to get the signage changed to just be gender-neutral restrooms,” said Jessika L. Roberts, president of LAMBDA.

Transitioning to non-gendered private restrooms consists of “a lot of difficulties with the patents, coloration, [selection] of signs, removal of signs [and installation of] signs,” Roberts said. Despite these complications, LAMBDA is prepared to reclassify all of these restrooms.

Roberts said that she is “in direct contact with facilities” to ensure that any of the future buildings on campus contain gender-neutral restrooms for students who are not comfortable using gendered or public restrooms.

Thomas Hornbuckle said that David Bass, the director of “the new Gordon Center for Jewish Student Life … is advocating very strongly that all of the restrooms in that house also be [gender-neutral] … [and] it’s very exciting to know that [the YCP campus] has a new building … that will already have that expected signage of being gender-neutral.”

Thomas Hornbuckle said she is “very hopeful” for gender-neutral restroom advocacy to become “easier” during the early construction of new campus buildings as a result of the Gordon Center for Jewish Student Life’s inclusion of gender-neutral restrooms.

She said that she would speak to Roberts about creating a list of restrooms that could be provided to students at Orientation and Accepted Student Day and published on the YCP website.

Roberts said that the initiative is primarily focused on “individuals that fall under the transgender umbrella” who may experience “issues identifying with [gendered restrooms].”

She said that “there have been acts of discrimination [against] trans-identifying students” who use on-campus restrooms that align with their gender identities. According to Roberts, transgender students have been “bullied or harassed” inside of public restrooms on campus.

Although Roberts did not witness acts of discrimination firsthand, she did learn of an incident in which a student allegedly exited the restroom due to other students’ transphobic comments.

Roberts said that “it’s very important for them to feel like they have a safe environment to use the restroom,” which is not the reality for all students within the transgender community.

Elijah E.B. Doss, an openly transgender student at YCP, said that he feels like the initiative is a “necessary” change. “I’m not comfortable with using public restrooms whatsoever,” he said, mentioning that, although he sometimes uses one of the public restrooms available in Wolf Hall, he generally prefers to “avoid [them] at all costs.”

Doss said his experiences in public restrooms “can be really weird,” regardless of whether he encounters an individual who already knows about his gender identity. He also said that encounters with strangers in restrooms might result in his “immediate danger.”

As a result of the potential discomfort and danger that he faces as an openly transgender student, Doss said that he will sometimes not use the restroom “for over eight hours.” When he does use a public restroom, Doss said that he will “run out of there as soon as [he receives] a weird look.”

“I think that the trans student body would feel a lot more comfortable with that kind of … [setup] in place,” Doss said. “I think it would be really beneficial for us, especially if we’re in a class that doesn’t have a gender-neutral [restroom nearby].”

Cisgender students not associated with LAMBDA or the ISLGP also support the initiative. Junior Eleni M. Mitchell said that it “makes perfect sense, and it should have been put into place a long time ago.”

Mitchell said she doesn’t understand the reason for single-stall restrooms not already being gender-neutral, but she believes “it’s a good solution to [the] issue — at least temporarily.”

Junior Mara N. Lewis agreed: “I think it’s a good idea.” Lewis said, “it’s 2018 — it’s time for us to start respecting everyone and just [be] understanding” of others. She said she doesn’t “see why people make it a big issue; it’s a bathroom.”

“I wish it wasn’t as big as an issue as it is, because a bathroom should be a bathroom, and it would benefit other individuals who are not within the LGBT community to have single-stall restrooms [on campus],” Roberts said. “I feel as though a bathroom is a very private place for an individual, and everyone has the right to privacy.”

Despite the support from LGBT community members and allies, transgender and other non-cisgender students have a higher risk of being physically and/or verbally assaulted in public restrooms than cisgender students.

LAMBDA’s initiative will ultimately provide all students with an alternative to public restrooms, which Roberts said could benefit those who do not identify with their assigned gender.