With the increase of awareness and acceptance of the transgender community, schools and universities across the United States have to decide whether or not they will implement unisex bathrooms.
According to the LGBTQ organization at the University of Massachusetts, more than 150 schools across the US have gender-neutral bathrooms - a number that is rising. This push for unisex bathrooms can mostly be attributed to students. At Wesleyan University in Middletown, debate over the issue began following a movement where students plastered “Everyone” signs over the standard “Boys” and “Girls” signs found on restroom doors. Although these signs were normally taken down within hours of being posted, the university has since implemented more bathrooms for everyone.
These “Everybody” bathrooms are so important to people because they offer a more comfortable environment to anyone who goes against the standards of gender. With unisex labels on bathroom doors, these students need not feel out of place.
“Non-trans people should recognize that our comfort is just as important as theirs,” an anonymous, transgender junior at Newtown High School said in response to the fact that not all gender-conforming people would want to use the same bathroom as someone of the opposite sex.
This begs the question: could the implementation of gender-neutral bathrooms lead to a backlash or even violence? Or would most students adapt to the new system and let it be?
“I’d probably feel a little uncomfortable at first. I’m sure after a while it would wear off,” Newtown High School junior Jack Palermo said.
NHS senior Rachel Williams confirmed Palermo’s comment. “The majority of people don’t care enough to do anything [protest, use violence, etc],” Williams said.
But what about the minority? What about the students who would protest the use of unisex bathrooms? One solution would be to keep the boys and girls bathrooms and add unisex bathrooms alongside, but this would add management costs on top of the initial construction costs. As it stands, there is no clear way to make everyone happy without someone making a compromise. "All we can do to try and fix that problem is to educate them [those who do not empathize with transgender individuals] and hope that they have an open mind," an anonymous transgender junior at NHS said.
Although college staff is becoming increasingly more accepting of the idea of gender-neutral bathrooms, high schools are seeing less of a trend. Newtown High School has almost exclusively separated bathrooms, with only two gender-neutral bathrooms across the entire complex. Regardless, it seems as though NHS may begin a wide spread implementation of these bathrooms in the future.
"Whatever helps our students learn is fine with me," NHS Assistant Principal David Roach said. Roach does not see the topic as one that needs to be so controversial. "We don't question why they use it. It's not our job," he said.
With this mindset, it seems very likely that unisex bathrooms will become a norm at NHS, with other high schools perhaps to follow in the steps of their college counterparts.