Free Republic

by Scott Ott (2005-03-15) -- A San Francisco County judge, who yesterday struck down California's ban on homosexual marriage, today ruled on the same basis that separate restrooms for men and women are unconstitutional. Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer likened the division of washrooms to laws requiring racial segregation in schools, and said there appears to be "no rational purpose for denying women access to men's facilities and vice versa." "The state's protracted denial of equal protection cannot be justified simply because such constitutional violation has become traditional," Judge Kramer wrote. "The court finds that the legal principle of lavatorio...

SAN FRANCISCO - Political epiphanies can occur in unexpected places. For Riki Dennis, a 35-year-old humanities student who is transsexual, it was the women's room at a rest stop on Highway 101 north of Santa Barbara. "The boyfriend hit me, even in mellow California," said Ms. Dennis, who was in the early stages of becoming female when she was assaulted by a stranger after using the women's room. "I said, 'Sir, I have no designs on your girlfriend.' I just want to use the bathroom." Ms. Dennis, whose lowish voice is now the lone betrayal of her birth sex, is...

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."...

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."...

For most people, deciding which bathroom to use in the Regenstein Library does not require mental gymnastics. But for some, a trip to the restroom is less simple, with gay, lesbian, and transgendered students worried about the implications of which bathrooms they enter. At the Center for Gender Studies on Wednesday night, a panel of four discussed the need for gender-neutral bathrooms on campus, specifically one in the Regenstein and one in Cobb Hall. Members of Feminist Majority, Queers & Associates, and the Center for Gender Studies organized the panel as part of the Coalition for a Queer Safe Campus....

Student group addresses sexuality, gender issues Alison Pierce Most Stanford students probably don’t spend time thinking about what it means to be “queer.” However, an increasingly visible and vocal queer community exists on campus, and a new student-run group called Querillas seeks to support it by increasing awareness about gender, sexuality and racial issues through activism, discussion and bimonthly meetings. Querillas’ stated mission is “to create and sustain queer activism and to mobilize, educate and empower members of the Stanford community. This is to effect fundamental, long-lasting changes in the University’s structure to ensure a commitment to furthering queer liberation.”...