People on the third floor of the Student Building noticed Monday an all-gender bathroom sign appeared to have been ripped off a wall and left hanging by paint and plaster.
Behind the sign were the letters M and N, with a space in between. It was unclear if the lettering had been behind the sign prior to the damage or if this was an act of vandalism. Any motivation behind the damage and possible vandalism is unknown.
The sign is for one of two all-gender bathrooms in the building. The other one appeared to be untouched and is on the opposite side of the third floor. The ground and first floors of the building offer multi-stall men and women bathrooms, while the second floor has two bathrooms, one men and one women. The third floor is the only one with all-gender bathrooms.
The damage comes at a time when transgender and bathroom issues are at the forefront of the nation’s political discussion.
On Monday, the Supreme Court decided not to hear the case of the transgender boy Gavin Grimm, according to an article in the New York Times. Grimm has been fighting to use the boys’ bathroom at his high school in Virginia under Title IX, which bans discrimination based on sex in schools that receive federal funding. The Supreme Court declining to hear the case means no conclusion on transgender rights in relation with Title IX will be reached this term by the Supreme Court, which leaves the decisions of Grimm’s case and others to lower courts, the article said.
Last month, President Trump retracted former President Barack Obama’s guidance to public schools to allow students to use the bathroom of their preference depending on their gender identity.
It is currently unknown whether or not the incident in the Student Building is a result of the current national controversy. The most recently published IU Police Department call logs did not list an incident reported at the Student Building. At the time of publication IUPD had not returned an IDS request for information.
