The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: gender neutral bathrooms

  • Gender-neutral bathrooms

    Gender-neutral bathrooms

    Bathrooms are changing all across campus

    The social norm of bathrooms has always been one restroom strictly for women and one for men. Humboldt State University has not put a gender-neutral bathroom with multiple stalls within the campus.

    There are plenty of unisex single-stalled restrooms but not multi-stalled gender-neutral bathrooms. Cory Strauss, a rangeland resources major with an emphasis with soil, is on his last year at HSU. Strauss was one of the first to push gender-neutral bathrooms into place and recruit more people to become aware of this issue.

    Strauss said that facilities management were hesitant to put gender-neutral bathrooms on campus due to unsure coding.

    “They wanted me to do a school-wide survey to see if there was even a need for these bathrooms,” Strauss said. “There wasn’t anyone within facilities opposed to this idea, just uncertainty and they were just very busy to hurry this process along.”

    IMG_4573.JPG
    Left to right: Neesh Wells, Jazmin Sandoval, and Cory Strauss in front of women’s bathroom in Harry Griffith Hall. | Photo by Delaney Duarte

    A lot of people don’t know that much information on gender inclusivity or the LGBTQ community, so people like Strauss also want to get these problems known so people are aware of issues like these.

    “It gives a physical space to start meeting and understanding one another,” Strauss said. “We want to have workshops to get information out there about the LGBTQ community, information in the bathroom about these things. If people have never looked into what these different words means, such as binary versus trans versus cis, it is an easy area to give out information on this.”

    The main buildings being focused on putting gender-neutral bathrooms are the Behavioral Social Science, Music A and B, Science A, B, C, and D, the library, the Theatre Arts building and the Harry Griffith Hall.

    Film major Jazmin Sandoval, also the president of the Associated Students, continuously fights for gender-neutral bathrooms.

    Sandoval said the the library and theatre arts are the easiest buildings to add gender-neutral bathrooms to because they are currently being retrofitted and remodeled.

    “The BSS because it is on top of a hill and it is very secluded and it has a ton of bathrooms but no gender-inclusive restrooms,” Sandoval said. “Harry Griffith hall might be a pilot project just to feel it out because there is an excessive amount of bathrooms in there where there is four bathrooms by each other”.

    These students have a lot of future planning for these bathrooms to take place. They want this campus to cater to all students who are in the LGBTQ community and even single parents who want to take their kids to the bathroom without feeling uncomfortable. They want everyone to feel safe and comfortable while attending Humboldt State University.

    Sandoval said that potentially there may be gender-neutral bathrooms in fall 2019 but there’s no guarantee.

    [perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”Neesh Wells” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”17″]”It has been statistically proven that zero percent of trans people have not attacked or used these bathrooms to take advantage of anyone.”[/perfectpullquote]

    “That’s why we’re doing all the planning now so we can have things structured and we can start to implement it next fall,” Sandoval said. “We are hoping to start Harry Griffith Hall sooner, rather than later because it would be very easy to convert one of the multi-stall into a gender-inclusive bathroom, but we have out eyes set on next fall.”

    Many people get the wrong idea as to why these gender-neutral bathrooms are necessary. Neesh Wells, the director for EDC and a business administration major emphasizing in marketing, takes part in trying to get gender-neutral bathrooms.

    “It has been statistically proven that zero percent of trans people have not attacked or used these bathrooms to take advantage of anyone,” Wells said. “Trans people have never assaulted anyone in a bathroom, most attacks are actually from people who are non-trans attacking those who are trans.”

    If you have any questions or want to get involved with this movement, there are meetings every Friday, 11:30-12:30 at facilities management in the facilities conference room. You can also contact Cory Strauss at Cds383@humboldt.edu, Jazmin Sandoval at js3852@humboldt.edu, or Neesh Wells at inw7@humboldt.edu.

  • How neutral are the gender neutral restrooms?

    How neutral are the gender neutral restrooms?

    Critical race, gender and sexuality studies majors have the daunting task of climbing to the top of the Behavioral & Social Sciences building. This is a battle most Humboldt State students know too well.

    Anybody who has made the hike up would hope there is a place for them at the top to relieve themselves, regardless of their gender identity.

    However, the BSS building has been left out of the loop when it comes to gender-neutral bathrooms on our campus.

    For students who don’t feel comfortable using the gendered restrooms, the closest one to the BSS is in the CCAT building, which is not very close.

    “It is not possible for students to have to go across campus between classes and still be on time,” HSU professor Loren Cannon said.

    Cannon’s office is on the fifth floor of BSS. He was confused as to why there was not one gender-neutral bathroom in the building.

    “There are at least four bathrooms on every floor. I don’t think it would be very difficult for the school to put one here,” Cannon said.

    The BSS building is not the only building on campus to lack a gender-neutral bathroom. The library, forestry and natural resources buildings have also been left out.

    However, the BSS is home to HSU’s critical race, gender and sexuality studies department located on the third floor.

    Many alumni from this department were in favor of bringing gender-neutral bathrooms to our campus in the first place. If these existed, the gender studies department would be able to accommodate those of all genders comfortably.

    Bridget Santana is a student majoring in CRGS. She doesn’t like how HSU’s CRGS department advocates for inclusion, yet does not have a gender-neutral bathroom in the department’s building.

    “It’s as if we keep trying to make some moves, but end up just speaking about it without creating action,” Santana said.

    Elizabeth Whitchurch of facilities management explains why this is the case.

    “The single unit bathrooms have always been part of our campus,” Whitchurch said. “They just weren’t specifically labeled.”

    Whitchurch said there were recent talks of opening a “test” multi-unit gender-neutral bathroom, but that project has not moved forward.

    “I honestly think this is kind of contradicting for the CRGS department, since we advocate about these situations and how we should be inclusive towards non-binary and non-gender specific people,” Santana said.