U. of C. activists want bathrooms without gender

Sun Times ^ | 11/13/03 | LUCIO GUERRERO

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Transgender, gay and feminist groups at the University of Chicago are asking officials to consider creating more gender-neutral bathrooms, saying some people aren't comfortable selecting a gender-specific facility.

"Persons who are not easily legible as male or female often experience various forms of intimidation in these places. If a woman in a women's-only restroom is assumed to be a man, there may be real threats to her comfort and even safety," warns the Coalition for a Queer Safe Campus, a student group comprised of various organizations supporting equality on campus. "Students have faced gay-baiting comments in our university's sex-segregated bathrooms."

The issue is especially of concern to transgenders who attend the university. The coalition said they know of students who don't use the bathrooms at school to avoid any controversy.

Members of the Feminist Majority, Queers & Associates and the Center for Gender Studies held a panel at the university last week to discuss the issue. Moon Duchin, a graduate student at U. of C. and an adviser to the Queer Safe Campus bathroom initiative, said there is a misperception on campus from some students about the gender-neutral bathrooms.

She said after the panel convened and word spread about the topic, some students posted negative comments on Web sites about the movement.

"This is a hot-button issue with some people who think that we are trying to do away with conventional bathrooms," Duchin said. "But that's not the case. We are trying to create more choices for people."

In the short term, the group wants to change existing bathrooms on one floor of the Joseph Regenstein Library and one floor of Cobb Hall, a popular student hangout. In the future, the group would like the university to consider gender-neutral bathrooms to be included in the plans for new buildings.

"Access to public, single-occupancy bathrooms would be ideal for undercutting this source of intimidation, but converting existing multi-stall bathrooms to gender neutrality is an excellent, and easy, intermediate step," the group writes on its Web site.

University officials said they are willing to look at the buildings to see if more bathrooms can be added.

"They have done a great job of raising community awareness of the issue," said Bill Michel, associate dean of the college. "We are in the process of evaluating these two buildings to see if would be possible to create more bathrooms."

Michel said the university already has nine gender-neutral bathrooms but none in the two most popular buildings.

But it is more than just a gay and transgender issue, for some feminists the issue of gender specific bathrooms has been a problem for years.

"Some feminists might say that any sex segregation is problematic," said Mary Anne Case, a professor of law at the University of Chicago who has studied the early roots of feminism and the inequality in sex segregated bathrooms.

Case said that along with creating more bathroom space for women -- a typical problem in public facilities -- the gender-neutral bathroom would also give men and women less reasons to separate in social functions.

[KevinDavis]

For the love of GOD!

[Mercat]

Shades of Ali McBeal.

[Billthedrill]

They can have my urinal when they pry my cold, dead...uh...never mind...

[Paul Atreides]

warns the Coalition for a Queer Safe Campus,

The real kicker is that people like this are taken seriously.

[Catalonia]

They used to do this in the dormitories at UC Santa Cruz, out in California.

Everybody hated it. Men and Women. I believe UCSC is back to having split bathrooms again.

It's amazing how far some people will go to posture as 'progressive'.

[Kirkwood]

I'm not comfortable with anyone, so I want a restroom made specifically for me.

[Maria S]

I heard some prof (A PhD in gender studies or something like that...you know those wild and zany PhD's!) on Michael Medved yesterday. Talking about transgender/male/female/other/etc. bathrooms, etc. When she said something about 'actively or visibly lesbian' students needing a 'safe' place for...I just shook my head and wondered what the #%@^& this country is coming to!

[Paul Atreides]

It would be fun to standing at an urinal, when a butch lesbo walks in, turn around, and say "Only in your dreams could you stand at this urinal!".

[MD_Willington_1976]

Sounds good...How about I eat a half pound of bran, 3 beers, a half pound of sour krout, a dozen pickeled herring, and top it off with another 3 beers...After that I'll head on into the crapper with my Guns & Ammo magazine and have a squat for a half hour or so & we'll see how many females or transgendered individuals will want to share the crapper with a guy...More then likely the Hazmat team will show up in force with their suits on wondering just what the hell is going on...

[onedoug]

The deconstruction of Western civilization proceeds apace.

[BBell]

I bet there will be a few perverts hanging around with cell phone cameras or small digitals. It would probably even spawn a web site. I can hear now, " honest lady I'm just talking on my cell phone."

[RWR8189]

To think this is the same university once made great by the likes of Milton Friedman.

How pathetic.

[hellinahandcart]

-- the gender-neutral bathroom would also give men and women less reasons to separate in social functions.

What the bleep is the feminazi talking about here? I would have thought she'd approve of women-only spaces.

[Sunshine Sister]

You have got to be kidding me!

[Billthedrill]

I'd be a little careful. Some of 'em carry pepper spray. Ow.

[No Blue States]

"The issue is especially of concern to transgenders who attend the university. The coalition said they know of students who don't use the bathrooms at school to avoid any controversy."

That must make for a long day for him or is it her?

[Semi Civil Servant]

She getting in touch with her Gaystapo side.

[SAJ]

Bunch of anencephalic clowns. Barely worth notice, let alone comment.

[headsonpikes]

Try to imagine the world-view of a person whose life-force and intellect is focussed on gaining social approval for their overt deviate sexual behavior.

Try to imagine being fixated on one's self-awareness in public toilets.

What a worm-like perspective these poor twisting creatures must have - it's sad, really.