Students At University Of South Carolina Publish Guide To Its Gender Neutral Restrooms
ByA group of students at the University of South Carolina created a color-coded map to help students distinguish between gender-neutral and gender-specific facilities, Campus Reform reported.
Six students at the public institution crafted a Gender Neutral Resource Guide of the public restrooms on the main campus that indicates which bathrooms are "single stall, gendered" or are gender-neutral.
According to the map, six campus buildings have gender neutral restrooms, including the university's Law Center and the Booker T. Washington Auditorium.
The University of South Carolina's restrooms were gender-specific until last year when Greg Pieczynski, a women and gender studies major, petitioned that the school create gender-neutral bathrooms in West Quad, his residential building on campus.
"The unfortunate reality is that within gendered spaces such as sex-segregated bathrooms, there is intimidation, harassment and even violence faced by those who may not fit into traditional gender norms," Pieczynski wrote in the proposal, according to the Carolina Reporter and News, the school's paper. "I desire to have a campus that is safe and welcoming to all students, faculty and staff regardless of sex or gender identity."
According to Campus Reform, Pieczynski and several other co-creators of the Gender Neutral Resource Guide have since graduated.
Current students on campus seem to be more concerned about the conditions of the university's buildings. Students say many of the bathrooms on the University of South Carolina's campus are worn down.
"It's already uncomfortable enough as it is... the bathrooms at USC are awkward enough already. Some of the restrooms don't even have dividers, so I don't think it would make much of a difference who uses the restrooms, whatever gender they identify with," third-years student Mitchell Stegall, a member of the Gamecock Conservatives, told Campus Reform.
More than 150 colleges and universities already have gender-neutral bathrooms on campus, according to the Transgender Law and Policy Institute.