UHCL lacks the facilities to accommodate all students

UHCL has one official gender neutral/family style restroom and one single-stall men and women restroom on campus.

The one family restroom is located on the first floor of the SSCB. However, it doesn’t appear on the SSCB map and, until last week, students had to request a key to access this restroom.

The single-stall men’s restroom and single stall women’s restroom reside on the third floor of the Neuman Library in the Bayou Building.

“It occurred to me that that could be something that people could use if they needed to,” said Casey Roberson, coordinator of library research services. “I just passed along that if someone needed a single use restroom, the ones here could be used.”

Multiple universities around the nation are adding gender-neutral bathrooms to their campuses such as the University of Buffalo and California State University, which added 15 before the beginning of the Fall 2016 semester.

The inclusion of gender-neutral facilities would create more options for those who have small children and for those with disabilities who require a caretaker. It would also address safety issues for people who are transgender while the debate about being able to enter restrooms based on gender identity is resolved.

Ashley Green, coordinator for women’s and LQBTQ services, in the office of Intercultural Student Services, agrees.

“The average life expectancy for a trans woman of color is 35,” Green said. “One of the places where most of that violence is experienced is in the restroom.”

A report published by the Anti-Violence Project in 2013 shows that of all the victims of hate crime-related violent homicides, 72 percent of them were transgender women. 67 percent of those victims were transgender women of color.

Hate crimes against transgender people have also occurred on college campuses in the Houston area. In June 2010, Lance Reyna, a transgender man, was a victim of a beating and robbery at knifepoint while in the men’s restroom at Houston Community College.

“By having gender neutral bathrooms, you’re creating a space where transgender people don’t necessarily have to put themselves into these scenarios,” Green said.

Josephine Tittsworth, the executive director of the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit, is a former UH and UHCL student. In April 2006, Tittsworth was instrumental in changing the UHCL non-discrimination policy to include protection against discrimination for transgender students, faculty and staff.

Tittsworth pointed out that more than just transgender people would benefit from the inclusion of gender-neutral bathrooms.

“It would be a positive thing,” Tittsworth said. “It would absolutely provide more options to people like a mother with a young son or a father with a young daughter.”

Gavin Steiger, director of disability services, acknowledges that while all bathrooms on campus are ADA compliant, adding gender-neutral bathrooms could provide more options.

“That can be one additional place to put ADA accessible bathrooms, and it would provide to all with a different gender identity and those with families,” Steiger said.

The federal government’s recent interpretation of Title IX states that all transgender students have the right to access bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

On May 15, 2016, President Obama’s administration released a letter to all public schools stating that they must not discriminate against anyone on the basis of sex or gender on the condition of receiving federal funds.

“A school may not require transgender students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or to use individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so,” the Obama letter stated.

The letter goes on to mention that the building of individual, gender-neutral bathrooms for those who seek additional privacy is encouraged but optional.

This interpretation was announced on the heels of the controversial House Bill 2 that was passed in North Carolina in March. The bill forbids transgender people from using restrooms in government-funded buildings that do not match with the gender listed on their birth certificates.

This bill has sparked both support and outrage across the country. In May, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a federal lawsuit stating that it violates the civil rights of transgender students. In response to this, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory filed a counter lawsuit claiming that the bill is not in any way discriminatory, but this lawsuit  since been dropped due to budgetary reasons.

Texas law regarding transgender bathrooms rights is poised to go in the direction of North Carolina. Plano Republican State Representative Matt Shaheen plans to introduce a bill similar to the HB 2 to the state legislature. In the same way as North Carolina, this bill will force transgender people to use bathrooms that match the gender on their birth certificate.

“They don’t understand what gender identity is,” Tittsworth said in regards to the controversy. “Your brain defines gender. Your body defines sex. Gender identity is fluid.”

The outcome of these events and how they will affect the rights of transgender individuals remains to be seen, but both The Obama Administration and The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) have released guides on how to best accommodate transgender students in public schools and universities.

“Schools should reduce or eliminate the practice of unnecessarily segregating students by gender,” states the model released by the NCTE. “In situations where students are segregated by gender, students should be included in the group that corresponds to their gender identity.”

As construction begins on the five new buildings on campus, Steiger hopes the university will keep gender-neutral bathrooms under consideration.

“Gender neutral bathrooms give more options to students,” Steiger said. “As more buildings are built on this campus, I hope that the architects keep this in mind.”

Genesis Granados, a student ambassador for the ISS office and the co-chair for the LBGTQ Student Coalition, said having gender-neutral restrooms are important because it creates a safe space for the people who need it.

“It is important to tell those that are in power that we are students,” Granados said. “We paid to come here, this is what we need.”

UPDATE 10/18/2016: This article has been updated to change the word “transgendered” to transgender.