Gender-neutral or all-gender restrooms are important for all students to feel comfortable on campus. Augustana should prioritize putting them in every building to ensure all students can use the restroom when needed.
On average, people use the restroom anywhere from four to ten times a day. For transgender and nonbinary people, being able to find a bathroom that is safe and comfortable for them to use up to ten times a day is a hassle. A lot of buildings only have women’s or men’s bathrooms, which leaves many people without a place to go.
Many trans and nonbinary people have to plan their day around where they can go to the restroom. If the buildings they are in do not have all gendered bathrooms, they might turn to not drinking or eating during the day, so they do not have to worry about finding a restroom. This can lead to health issues and is not a comfortable way to live.
According to the National Institutes of Health, not going to the bathroom when needed and restricting water intake can lead to “dehydration, kidney pain, kidney dysfunction and urinary tract infections.”
No one should have to worry about restricting their food and water intake because they cannot simply go use the bathroom. Everyone has to go to the restroom, it is a necessary bodily function. It is unfair that some people have to think twice as hard as others and plan their entire day around when they can go pee.
Being forced to use one of two binary restrooms or no restroom at all is not only demeaning to people’s identities, but it can also be dangerous. Many trans and nonbinary people experience harassment or violence when using gendered restrooms.
The 2015 US transgender survey found that, of the 27,715 respondents, 12%“reported being verbally harassed, physically attacked and/or [sexually] assaulted when accessing or while using a restroom in the past year.”
This survey is conducted yearly, and in 2022, the US transgender survey found that, “In the last 12 months, 6% of respondents had been verbally harassed, physically attacked, or experienced unwanted sexual contact when accessing or using a restroom,”
While this does show an improvement in the numbers, there is still more work to be done.
Trans and nonbinary people should not have to worry about getting harmed or belittled just because they have to go to the bathroom as all people have to do. They deserve to feel safe when walking into the restroom.
Augustana has done a good job of putting all-gender bathrooms in several buildings around campus, including Old Main and Gerber, which is a huge step in the right direction. However, these restrooms should be easily accessible. Most of them are tucked away and nowhere near classrooms, meaning students have to lose several minutes of class time to find the restroom.
All-gender and gender-neutral restrooms should not be a hot commodity. Having only one per building is not enough. Trans and nonbinary students should not have to worry about missing valuable information in their classes, on top of planning their day around restroom access, because there are little to no restrooms available to them.
As a community, we have to make sure that our trans and nonbinary peers feel safe. There needs to be more all-gender and gender-neutral bathrooms on campus and ones that are easily accessible. Trans and nonbinary people deserve to be able to run to the restroom whenever they need to, without worrying about their safety or being inconvenienced.