In an effort to make the campus a friendly place for transgender students and people with small children, the College of Staten Island is reconstructing one bathroom in each building to be gender neutral. "It's common sense, really," said Professor Dr. Syed Rizvi. "It provides people with a safe environment to perform basic human functions." The conversions don't seem too difficult either. Eight men's rooms were changed to unisex with the simple addition of a lock on the main door.
The school's Inclusive Excellence Committee got the idea from a visit to the University of Vermont, which also has gender neutral restrooms. The college believes the restrooms will help transgender students or faculty with small children feel more comfortable on campus. According to the city Commission on Human Rights, transgender people should use the restroom of the sex with which they identify, not the sex they were born with. However, this has been known to cause issues. Michael Silverman of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund said, "You use the women's bathroom and cops and security come running in, demanding to know who you are and what's your sex. That can be quite humiliating. It's really a difficult issue for a lot of people that leaves them fearful and nervous."
Not everyone at school is happy with the changes, mainly because they believe the ability to lock the main door when there are seven stalls inside will cause unnecessary lines. They're also worried this will give a free pass for anyone wanting to get busy between classes. Said one student, "You just have to hope they're going to be adults. That's all."
