A great children’s book once said, “Everyone Poops.” Unfortunately, not everyone has a place they feel comfortable pooping.
An IU Student Association resolution passed this past week hopes to change that by urging the Residence Hall Association to put gender-neutral bathrooms on all single-gender floors that already have two bathrooms. One bathroom would become “gender-neutral,” while the other would remain exclusively male or female.
The resolution was written by Indiana Daily Student columnist, representative and RHA Director of Social Advocacy Andrew Guenther.
Finally, everyone might be able to poop in peace, a cause the IDS Editorial Board can get behind.
We assume this would mostly ?involve a change in signage.
Former men’s restrooms might have to lose urinals in favor of toilets and stalls, which represents an overall minor and relatively inexpensive change. At no charge, we could keep them as friendly reminders of how far we’ve come.
It’s a small price to pay to be better-accommodating and considerate of everyone who might find themselves on a single-gender floor.
“Single-gender” is a little ?misleading, because floors are generally divided by the legal sex one is assigned at birth. Gender is different, usually thought of as how you ?identify yourself.
Some students might legally be men, but identify as women, or vice versa. Some students might not identify within the gender binary or with any gender.
Some students might not have strictly male or female genitalia. Some students might have regular visitors who fall into this gray area who don’t feel particularly comfortable using “male” or “female” ?bathrooms.
It’s hard to know exactly how many transgender or nonbinary students attend IU, because no data is regularly kept on these populations. For this reason, it’s difficult to discern how well these students are treated on campus or if their needs are being met.
With many single-gender floors devoid of gender-neutral bathrooms, we’d hazard to guess that some very basic needs are not being met.
Remember how embarrassing it was when the United States Senate finally expanded its women’s ?bathroom?
And that was just because an oversight in Capitol construction that occurred simply because no one expected women to be there in the first place.
IU can avoid that embarrassment — and enroll more trans and nonbinary students — by acknowledging all different types of people exist and sometimes have to use these ?facilities.
But transgender students and those outside the binary aren’t the only ones who would benefit from the change. Gender-neutral bathrooms, better known as just “bathrooms,” are a place anyone can go when they have to go.
When a female student’s male guest visits, she no longer has to escort him to the men’s bathroom the floor above or below.
When a male student’s mom comes to take him to dinner, he doesn’t have to parade her around the women’s floor. The gender-neutral bathroom accommodates moms just fine.
Changing one all-male or all-female bathroom into just a bathroom doesn’t take anything away from anyone. It makes the toilet more accessible to everyone.
This is a beautiful thing.
Almost as beautiful as the fact that everyone poops.
