Scott McLellan
Seniors, juniors and sophomores may recall from last semester that Jacob Danko ’16, Cas Wain ’16, Angela Neely ’14 and I brought a discussion to the college regarding an effort to implement all-gender bathrooms on campus. While also considering issues of safe (and comforting) gender-segregated private spaces, our group worked with Christa Craven (Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies/Anthrpology), Nancy Grace (director of the Center for Diversity and Global Engagement and Professor of English/WGSS) and Deans Kurt Holmes and Christie Bing-Kracker on plans to convert public, single-occupant restrooms into explicitly all-gender facilities.
As my team members, other students and I have seen, this change has not been implemented. Unfortunately, the group that worked on this project has fragmented. Returning to campus to ask about the status of this project — motivated by a friend’s angry text — left me with the feeling that little, if any, communication had occurred to keep this project in motion. Given my role in the development of this project, I take responsibility for this lapse in connection. Simply put — I’m busy. This holds true for most students, faculty and staff on campus. We are all busy. I would cede to the administration that they are also incredibly busy (more so than I imagine) and therefore may even have forgotten about the project.
To some — mostly those who have the privilege of feeling safe in restrooms — this project may seem of little consequence. Seemingly even more inconsequential is the fact that single-occupant restrooms already function as gender-neutral spaces (as only one person is intended to occupy it at one time). The issue, however, is not about the facts of the everyday; rather, it is about changing those facts. Such truths are the (statistically speaking) compromised security and feelings of safety for gender nonconforming people on campus. This refers both to feeling and actually being safe. By no means do I want to suggest that gender nonconforming people are inherently vulnerable or weak. We can see, with the recent installation of security cameras on Beall Ave, that harassment is one of the many harsh realities facing gender nonconforming people. Even more precarious is the feeling of dealing with harassment in a relatively private public space — the bathroom. Adding these bathrooms, as has been stated before, is one important step in opening and transforming gender/sexual relations on campus.
I don’t want to re-open discussion of these complicated issues here. What I do want to call for, however, is collective revitalization for this project. I hope we, as a campus community, can re-invigorate dialogues about complex gender and sexual relations on campus. Ultimately, I am calling for the rest of the campus community — whether you are gender conforming or not — to take these issues seriously and to actively support their continued resolutions. Unfortunately, I was unable to reach the deans for further comment on this (I admittedly gave them little time to respond).
Again, they are busy — we are all busy. I do not want this busyness to let slip from our radars two essential facts: one, that gender nonconforming people live on this campus as members of the community; and two, that they do not have the privilege of distracting effects of busy lives to cope with potential unsafe circumstances and discomfort. While we may think this is ultimately the Dean of Students Office’s problem to solve, it is a community problem to solve. I hope that we can collectively keep this project alive and in the campus eye to ensure that all gender bathrooms are instituted — and soon.