After same-sex marriage was legalized in all 50 states last year, public restrooms became the LGBT battleground. The best example of this is North Carolina passing a law that bans transgender people from using the public bathroom of their choice, a law that has so far ended up with North Carolina suing the federal government and vice versa. Retail giant Target has also seen protest over their policy allowing transgender people to use the bathroom they’re most comfortable with.
Now Yale University is joining in on the battle. They have debuted 23 new gender-neutral bathrooms on their campus, just in time for commencement on Monday. According to ABC News, the university announced the new additions on its official commencement website, and are providing a map that shows where people can find all of them on Monday. The new restrooms are mostly single stall, and are now labeled “All Gender Restroom,” with both the standard man and woman restroom symbols.
Not only is the timing deliberate, but the goal was to make an overt statement:
“Yale aims to be a leader on this front,” said Tamar Gendler, dean of Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “Part of what is important about the all-gender bathroom project and about putting it at the top of our commencement site, is this is about public signaling.”
It’s powerful indeed for a world-renowned university like Yale promote gender-neutral bathrooms when transgender issues are becoming more visible, especially when it comes to which restrooms transgender people have the right to use. Along with other American colleges, Yale is addressing their trans student body in other ways, by letting trans students list their preferred gender on their diplomas, rather than the gender listed on their birth certificate. It’s also official Yale policy to address trans people on campus using the pronouns of their choice.
(via ABC News)