All-Gender restrooms setting new precedence

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As of February 2016 Pacific University now has all gender restrooms. on the school website comma it is stated that “ Pacific University offers more than 30 all gender restrooms on its campuses to serve the needs of our diverse community. Pacific all gender restrooms are single-use or spaces that are open to anyone. These all gender restrooms are clearly marked with the sign to the right.”

The website also says,” all gender restrooms help serve the needs of trans and gender non-conforming people, as well as families with children and alter-abled people who may require an attendant of a different gender.”Sophomore Paige Kestler said “I think it’s good we have something like that but I don’t think we quite have enough.

I think at some point [adding gender-neutral showers to dorms]  would be good. I don’t know that there is a gender-neutral bathroom in every building. That could be a priority because, while there are a lot, it’s super inconvenient if you’re in class and you have to pee and you have nowhere to go in your building.” These restrooms were created by request of the Undergraduate Student Senate, along with Professional Student Senate and the Center for Gender Equity (CGE).

All of the single user, locking restroom that existed on campus were “updated with new signage doesn’t giving them as all gender spaces,” according to the school website.

Senior Kyle Southard, member of the CGE said, “the changes from gendered to all-restrooms are a pretty big accomplishment on the CGE’s part and I’m honored to be involved in an organization that has promoted so much advocacy.”

Kestler also said they like “[using the all gender restrooms] better because then, going to the bathroom for me, as a non-binary person, is less of an event. When I’m in the theater building, for example, I usually use the mens restroom because it’s on the main floor and I’m not going all the way upstairs to pee. But there’s always maybe someone in the bathroom that might be like ‘you don’t belong here’ and I’m not going to know how to deal with that.”

Kyle Southerard said, “I appreciate [the all-gender restrooms] a lot. I think it’s a great accommodation that Pacific has made to the queer community that will hopefully prove to be useful in removing some of the barriers to recognizing equity between all gender identifications, not just the male/female binary.”

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