Outcome of Campaign #2: Gender-Neutral Bathrooms

-We wanted to raise awareness around the issue of gender-neutral bathrooms, focusing on education about the harassment and intimidation of transgender and gender-variant people.

We got attention, all right, including from the Sun-Times, the local NPR station, and Rush Limbaugh. (See the campaign site for details.) The media coverage, while it certainly raised our profile, was only a partial success, though, because it mostly missed the point (sometimes intentionally) about intimidation and gender-policing as the reason for the campaign. The stories seemed to focus on the idea that queer people didn't want to choose between confining labels of "male" and "female"... not our rallying point.

We also raised awareness on campus through tabling, postering, and throwing a very successful entertainment/education show which hundreds of students attended and received our FAQ.

-We wanted the Administration to convert one existing (multi-stall) bathroom in each of two major campus buildings (Cobb and the Reg) to gender-neutrality as a temporary measure before creating single-occupancy gender-neutral bathrooms in these and other buildings.

We got more than we asked for, and faster. Several single-occupancy gender-neutral bathrooms debuted in Cobb Hall and the Regenstein Library in January 2004.

Check out this email letter to the library staff (with names deleted), mentioning student activism as the reason for the change and including our site as an educational resource.

-We wanted a commitment to including at least one single-occupancy gender-neutral bathroom in every new campus building design.

Still waiting on this one.