The A.S. Council unanimously approved a resolution in favor of unisex bathrooms on campus at its meeting on Nov. 6. As of now, the only bathroom available to both females and males is in the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Office.
Written by A.S. Commissioner of Student Advocacy Brie Finegold, the resolution is similar to previous ones passed at UCLA and UC Berkeley. LGBTRO’s Queering Discussion Group has been working on it for most of the school year. Through this resolution, Finegold said, the committee wanted to make the campus climate more inviting and convenient.
The resolution explained the reasons why gender-specific bathrooms are an encumbrance to the UCSD community and asked A.S. Council to create unisex, handicap-accessible, single-stall bathrooms. Furthermore, it asks that the university convert single-stall bathrooms into facilities that are available to both genders and to make sure that new buildings on campus have at least one of these bathrooms.
The resolution hopes to create a comfortable and safe environment for transgendered individuals, who may be unsure of which bathrooms to use due to the ambiguity of their sexual identity. Finegold says they will be less susceptible to harassment from others when attempting to use a restroom.
Unisex bathrooms would also be more convenient for parents with young children of the opposite sex. Children, their parents and others entering the bathrooms will not have to feel as uncomfortable with the presence of children of the opposite sex in a gender-specific bathroom, according to the resolution.
Unisex bathrooms would also alleviate the frustration and inconvenience that handicapped people must go through in waiting for an available wheelchair accessible stall, the resolution states.
“”I think it is really nice that A.S. passed this resolution to show support for people on this campus who are trying to make change,”” Finegold said.
Despite this, there are some students who argue that the campus transgender community is not large enough to warrant a change.
“”I think the university money can be spent in a better way than changing bathrooms around,”” said Jeremy Berla, a freshman at John Muir College.
