In my paper, I am arguing for all public bathrooms to accommodate everyone. For the majority of public bathrooms only accommodate cisgender individuals. Some argue that changing the restrooms to gender-neutral bathrooms would cause more problems than it would solve, but these problems are hypothetical and ignore a real problem. How would denying transgender individuals a restroom be different from denying a handicapped individual to a restroom? In this paper, I use personal narratives from people who are directly affected by the gender specific bathrooms, using people of different races, ages and with different jobs, having a variety of people proves that the gender-specific bathroom problem affects everyone. Everyone needs to use the restroom; restrooms should be made for everyone. People have let a simple bathroom sign cause them so much pain and shame. There is not anyone else but that individual to determine their own gender. The law that prohibits opposite gender to enter the restroom is absurd. The law should be against assault which happens between and within all genders. 

When a person uses the restroom in an airplane they don't worry about who or which gender used it before them or who is waiting in the line after them. In a small coffee shop that only has one restroom, people do not refuse to use the restroom because they fear that the opposite gender used the restroom before them, because a toilet is a toilet it will flush and do everything it needs to do. Men's and women's restrooms have the same function. While gender may seem purely biological, gender is based on more than an X or Y chromosome; gender is based on how one feels about oneself. So in the case pertaining to transgender and non-binary individuals, how will one of the most basic necessities such as public bathrooms accommodate them? 

Public bathrooms are for everyone not just cisgender individuals. A solution to the problem is making gender neutral bathrooms. Instead of having a women's restroom or a men's restroom, it would be everyone's restroom. There is a lot of controversy on the topic. Many people believe that gender neutral bathrooms are not a priority and that it could cause more problems than they would fix, but when did using a public restroom become a privilege? Transgender individuals often feel like cannot use the restroom at all. People police bathrooms, deciding which people are and are not allowed in bathrooms. 

Transgender individuals are getting attacked in bathrooms because they may have not looked like their designated gender or the gender they believe they belong to. Many transgender individuals have talked about their experience of being attacked in a bathroom, a student at Cal State Long Beach was attacked and the word it was carved into his chest (Branson). Those who have opened up talked about their anxiety in using the restroom, have talked about the physical pain and the emotional distress they suffered through. They do not use the public restroom, instead, they choose to wait until they feel like they are in a safe environment. Even seemingly carefree children are experiencing anxiety. One "tomboy" girl in elementary school chose to wet herself rather than getting bullied out of the girl's restroom after she was told that she was not allowed to use the boy's (Coyote). 

The first time I encountered a gender neutral bathroom I was confused. I was looking for any indication of which gender the bathroom was assigned to because it did not specify, so I paced around looking for a women's or a men's sign because I had never come across a restroom that did not have a sign at all. I gave up on my search and decided to just go inside. When I walked in I was surprised to see a man. I turned around to leave, thinking I was in the wrong restroom, but the man assured me that it was a gender neutral bathroom. We avoided eye contact when I passed him looking for an unoccupied stall and I barely noticed the rest. The bathroom situation did not bother me but just took me by surprise. While I was not necessarily comfortable being in an enclosed room with the opposite gender, when it comes to function it does not make it any more difficult to use. The stalls were enclosed and more private than standard bathroom stalls, I did not know whether it was a man or a woman in the adjacent stall. I come from a conservative culture, and a gender neutral bathroom did not affect my values but was more a culture shock. Along with the culture shock, I did not understand the reasoning behind the gender neutral bathrooms at first, but I researched the topic and it piqued my interest.

A gender neutral bathroom is a bathroom that does not specify which gender is allowed to use it. Gender neutral bathrooms benefit people who do not associate themselves with either gender or do not look like their assigned gender at birth. Not only do they help LGBT individuals, but also help parents with their children who are opposite gender or elderly who needs their opposite gendered significant other to assist them (Gender). While some may argue that gender neutral bathrooms are not necessary, there are some people who feel as if they cannot use public bathrooms at all. There are many cases in which transgender individuals are attacked in the bathroom because they do not look like the gender that they are assigned to and they aren't allowed to use the restroom that they do appear to belong to because of the law that prohibits people from using the bathroom that does not coordinate with the gender they were biologically assigned.

 A North Carolina governor recently signed a bill on Wednesday, March 23, 2016, that blocked cities from allowing transgender individuals to use public bathrooms for the sex that they identify as. The law denies the protection of LGBT individuals by the anti-discrimination law. The biggest issue for those who signed the bill was privacy, the issue of men going into the women's restroom. Though those against the bill believe it to be a way to stigmatize and marginalize transgender individuals. Sarah Preston, the director of American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina argues against the bill in CNN's article about the bill being signed, "Rather than expand nondiscrimination laws to protect all North Carolinians, the General Assembly instead spent $42,000 to rush through an extreme bill that undoes all local nondiscrimination laws and specifically excludes gay and transgender people from legal protections." Those who signed the bill commented that the ordinance of letting transgender individuals use the restroom that they wish is against common sense. Tim Moore, North Carolina House speaker defended the bill saying that the issue was mainly focused on privacy, "one of the biggest issues was about privacy, the way the ordinance was written by City Council in Charlotte, it would have allowed a man to go into a bathroom, locker or any changing facility, where women are -- even if he was a man. We were concerned. Obviously there is the security risk of a sexual predator, but there is the issue of privacy," (Kopan).

Prominent figures such as Caitlyn Jenner and Bruce Springsteen spoke out against the bathroom bill. Caitlyn Jenner tweeted on March 23, 2016 that told her followers to stand against the bill by tweeting to Pat McCrory's twitter (Kopan). Springsteen spoke his mind by cancelling his concert in Greensborough, North Carolina. Springsteen said, "To my mind, it's an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress. Taking all of this into account, I feel that this is a time for me and the band to show solidarity for those freedom fighters. As a result, and with deepest apologies to our dedicated fans in Greensboro, we have canceled our show scheduled for Sunday, April 10th. Some things are more important than a rock show, and this fight against prejudice and bigotry  --  which is happening as I write  --  is one of them," (Kludt).

Kim Bellware wrote in her article in Huffington Post argues against the law, "Forcing trans or non-binary students to use a traditionally gendered restroom "repeatedly 'outs' them to other students or employees and stigmatizes them daily by singling them out and prevents them from having critical peer experiences," (Bellware). People who are uncomfortable with the gender they were assigned to take the commitment, time and money just to make themselves feel comfortable in their own body and making them use the bathroom that they are not comfortable takes away the work that they put into feeling comfortable, making them feel as if nothing that they did was worth it.

Izzy Rode, a writer for Slate, wrote on her article, "No More Women's Rooms: Why Bathrooms Should All Be Gender-Neutral," on her own personal experiences and anxieties pertaining to using the restroom. "When I androgynously walk into a restroom and am greeted by a negative reaction from another bathroom patron -- which has ranged from startled gasps to being shoved back into the stall -- I assume their outrage is of the same degree as my frustration at knowing I'm not fully welcome in either restroom," (Rode).  Another example of a transgender individual being attacked is Chrissy Lee Polis, who was beaten in Baltimore at a McDonald's for using the woman's restroom (Steinmetz). Not only are there physical pain that these people have to endure, they have to deal with the trauma of being beaten, verbally abused, and thrown out of a restroom for just trying to use the restroom. 

This issue does not only affect adults who are transgender but children who do not feel comfortable with their gender and associate themselves with a different gender identity. Pamela Powers Hannley, a writer for Tucson Progressive, argues that children do not understand the idea of gender identity, she says in her article, "How can a 5-year-old know and express the belief that he feels more comfortable as a girl? I do believe that people can show signs of being gay when they are children, but in my opinion, the concept of gender identification is far more complex and beyond the intellectual capacity of an elementary school student," (Powers). Comfort and discomfort are innate sensations, a child knows when they are uncomfortable with something. If a little girl who identified as a girl were to be in a boy's restroom she would not be comfortable, how can a child know what he or she is comfortable with, without knowing what he or she is not comfortable with? Miraloma Elementary School, has put in gender neutral bathrooms because of eight students who do not fit in the gender norms. The students range from tomboy to transgender children. The school has taken down the bathroom signs so that all of the kids at the school can feel comfortable. Jae, a student who goes to the Miraloma Elementary School, he is a boy, but feels more comfortable in girls' clothing and wears his hair long. His mother spoke to Jill Tucker, a reporter who writes for San Francisco Gate, about how she is concerned for her son's safety at school. "I think most people don't think about how difficult it can be, going to the bathroom for someone like my son," Jae's mother said. Kevin Gogan, the district's director of safety and wellness said in Tucker's article that the school district's responsibility is to create a safe environment for all students which meant that they would accept and accommodate even 1% of all students at middle and high school who identify as transgender who add up to more than 300 students. There are children who are less fortunate than those who attend Miraloma Elementary. 

Ivan Coyote, a transgender individual who spoke about gender neutral bathrooms in a TED Talk, and told a personal story about their friend's daughter. The little girl was a tomboy, she wore boy's clothes and played with toys that were associated more with boys than girls, her favorite color was camouflage. She was harassed when she tried to use the girl's restroom because she didn't look like the rest of the other little girls, and the teacher already told her not to use the boy's bathroom. Ivan Coyote said in their TED Talk, "She was four years old, and she already had been taught the brutal lesson that there was no bathroom door at preschool with a sign on it that welcomed people like her." The girl's mother asked Ivan to talk to her daughter. More than anything, Ivan wanted to console her and tell the child that things would be better when she grew up, but they knew from their own experience that it wasn't true. Coyote has had troubles in their own life because in their situation, they had to use the men's restroom when they were not a man but they looked like a man. With the new laws prohibiting people to use the bathroom that is not the same as the gender that they were assigned to at birth. Ivan could not use the woman's restroom because they would be attacked and they could not use the men's restroom because they were not a man. At a young age, people teach children not to be afraid to be themselves, but the little girl learned that she could not be herself (Coyote). UK's largest treatment care center had a rise in minors that had referrals that pertained gender-identity issues (McLaren). These gender issues are not only happening in adults, these are issues that people of all ages are struggling with and comfort is not something that is too complex for anyone to understand. 

One of the biggest issues with gender neutral bathrooms is the issue of privacy and safety of women. As of right now, many states have a law that is against people entering bathrooms that is opposite to their biological gender assigned to them at birth. Sasha Buchert spoke to Katy Steinzetz in her Time article responding to the law, calling it unenforceable, "Are they going to place security guards at each bathrooms to do DNA tests to verify folk's chromosomes?" (Steinmetz). The law not only cannot be enforced but is unnecessary. There is also a law that is against sexual assault, that law does not stop men from sexual assault so a bathroom sign nor a law will not stop them either. Others believe that gender neutral bathrooms are not a necessity and it is not a priority to make the change because those that it would benefit are insignificant. In an article written on SoCawlege, an online blog, the writer of the blog argues that the number of transgender individuals are unknown and the amount of individuals that do identify as transgender are not significant enough to make a change that could possibly compromise the safety of the majority. The writer says that everything is a trade off, "whenever you make something better, you must make something else worse. The question is, which alternative outweighs the other in terms of harm and benefit. Public policy is about finding the right balance with every issue, and maximizing things through making the correct trade offs. Gender neutral bathrooms are no different," (SoCawlege). But in this situation, there is nothing that is being asked of the majority, it is asking transgender individuals and everyone who is affected by the issue to deal with it because the majority is not willing to change their bathroom habits because their issues are not significant enough. The laws prevent transgender individuals from using the restroom they identify with. The majority should take part in the trade off either allowing transgender individuals to use either bathroom they wish or allowing the creation of gender neutral bathrooms. The case against the gender neutral bathrooms are based upon hypothetical fears that have been proven in many college campuses that gender neutral bathrooms only help those who need them and do no harm to those who do not. Many college campuses, workplaces and other public buildings have been making gender neutral bathrooms. 

Another big issue in gender neutral bathrooms are costs, in The Bulletin, Elizabeth Beltrami writes about some of the arguments against gender neutral bathrooms stating that the cost for a unisex bathroom can range between $10,000 and $20,000 (Beltrami). Some places simply took the gender indicating sign off of bathrooms which has little to no costs. Many businesses and public buildings renovate their bathrooms just for aesthetic, those who do should renovate for function. Another solution is simply adding a single-stall gender neutral bathroom, which is not as costly and there is no fear of men and women being in the restroom together since it is single stall. 

In most college campuses do not accommodate for transgender individuals not only for bathrooms but health services, education programs, support services, housing, and other things that the majority of people take for granted (Beemyn). But it is not only college campuses, transgender individuals are too often overlooked because they are such a minority. Transgender individuals are attacked, traumatized and are not given the same rights. Currently anti-discrimination act protects against discrimination based upon race, sex, age, or ethnic origin but does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Everyone should be protected by the anti-discrimination act. Everyone deserves to be respected, as the United States of America we should respect or tolerate those that are different, but we cannot tolerate discrimination of any kind. Making gender neutral bathrooms is just a small step closer to further uniting our country.

