Gender Neutral Bathrooms
Gendered public bathrooms can be sources of severe anxiety, since they are often places where transgender, nonbinary, and other gender nonconforming individuals face near constant challenges to their identity. These challenges can range anywhere from verbal harassment to physical assault. This makes gendered bathrooms more of a hindrance than a help when it comes to the everyday life of gender and sexual minorities (Faktor, 2011). According to The Trevor Project’s 2020 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, 61% of transgender and nonbinary youth were prevented or discouraged from using the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity, and the most frequent place this discrimination occurred was at school. Transgender and nonbinary students being required to use the bathroom that aligns with their sex assigned at birth rather than the one that reflects their gender identity is illegal under Title IX (Rosen, n.d.).
Transgender and nonbinary students risk verbal and physical harassment, no matter which of the two sex-segregated bathrooms they choose (Rosen, n.d.). Bathrooms and locker rooms are often avoided by LGBTQ+ youth, as they are perceived as the least safe spaces in school (Porta et al., 2017). When students cannot use the gendered bathroom that aligns with their gender identity, they may “hold it” or restrict fluid intake, risking pain, dehydration, and kidney infection (Rosen, n.d.). In a study conducted by Porta et al. (2017), one respondent (18, genderqueer, lesbian), related a negative experience she had in a gendered restroom: “I was washing my hands. This woman came out. She was maybe like in between or 30s or 40s somewhere, oldish but not really. She kind of stood there and watched me wash my hands. She was like, ‘this is the woman’s room.’ I was like, ‘I’m a girl.’ She was like, ‘oh.’ She just stood there and let me leave, but she was just … she was really gross.”
Positive bathroom experiences for all LGBTQ+ youth are overwhelmingly associated with gender-neutral or single stall public bathrooms. It is clear that access to public bathrooms is a basic human right; a matter of dignity, public health, and safety (Faktor, 2011).
Sean’s Legacy gratefully acknowledges Coriann Dorgay for the assistance in the preparation of this report.
Sources:
Faktor, A. (2011). Access and exclusion: Public toilets as sites of insecurity for gender and sexual minorities in North America. Journal of Human Security. 7:3, 10-22.
Porta, C.M., Gower, A.L., Mehus, C.J., Yu, X., Saewyc, E.M. & Eisenberg, M.E. (2017). “Kicked out”: LGBTQ youth’s bathroom experiences and preferences. Journal of Adolescence. 56, 107-112.
Rosen, D. (n.d.). Gender-neutral bathrooms are radical, but not how you think. GLSEN. Retrieved on August 12, 2020 from https://www.glsen.org/blog/gender-neutral-bathrooms-are-radical-not-how-you-think
The Trevor Project. (2020). 2020 National survey on LGBTQ youth mental health. New York, New York: The Trevor Project. https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2020/?section=Introduction