No campus community member should feel uncomfortable simply for being true to their identity, especially at a progressive institution like UC Berkeley. Yet it is easy to see why some here might feel that way, given the current lack of gender-neutral bathrooms on our campus.
Students, faculty and staff who don’t identify with a particular gender should not have to go out of their way to find an appropriate campus restroom — gender-neutral options should be easily accessible throughout campus. UC Berkeley made laudable progress by creating such gender-neutral spaces in most of its housing. However, that same mindset must apply to all buildings on the central campus.
Recent controversy in the new Maximino Martinez Commons over gender-designated bathrooms demonstrates how important the issue is to students and indicates the need for more inclusive bathroom designation on campus. The newly opened dorm did not have gender-neutral bathrooms when students first moved in, indicating a lack of consideration for every campus community member. This should never be the case at UC Berkeley.
Still, the campus handled the situation well and came to an agreeable compromise by designating some bathrooms in the commons as gender-neutral and others as not.
Creating widespread gender-neutral bathrooms would be a radical step, but it would also mean living up to our ideals as a progressive campus. UC Berkeley has a proud tradition of encouraging a diverse student body, so embracing gender-neutral bathrooms on a large scale would be another step forward.
More gender-neutral bathrooms on campus would not only more adequately serve our diverse student body, but they would hopefully teach new students to think critically about the issue and respect different gender identities. This wouldn’t mean that those who are uncomfortable using gender-neutral bathrooms would have to forgo the traditional option. A mix of both should be available to accommodate everyone.
We shouldn’t expect gender-neutral bathrooms to become standard without opposition or controversy. It is not standard in most places, and some people will not be comfortable with the idea. At the same time, this would set a positive example for other universities across the nation. UC Berkeley has been ahead of the curve on many occasions — let’s take the lead here, too.
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This is a load of crap. I’ve been to a few LGBT events and they’re vehement about differentiating between sex and gender. Sex is the biological stuff that’s going on downstairs, and gender is what’s going on in peoples’ heads.
This article confuses those two ideas (sex and gender). Access to bathrooms has traditionally been determined by sex. Genitalia. And that kind of makes sense. It’s harder for inappropriate (and perhaps unwanted) things to happen when guys are with guys and girls are with girls. Sometimes evangelicals get together and stuff happens, but at least it’s not rape (legitimate or otherwise ;)
Access to bathrooms should not be a function of gender. If it was, any pervert could just walk into the ladies’ room and have a gander, claiming that they were gender-confused.
Use your noggins, people. Just ‘cuz someone is asking for “rights” doesn’t mean that they’re asking rightfully, so to speak. This doesn’t make any sense.
Has the DC forgotten that public bathrooms serve the needs of visiting minors as well? I have no problem with coed bathrooms for adults, but young children deserve some protection.
I understand the issue about the dorm bathrooms, because people are showering, but I am not sure about a real need with the on campus bathrooms where individuals are not naked. If a transexual can walk around campus and go to class, how are they not able to just pick the restroom of the gender they choose and blend in? If Cal doesn’t want to make students uncomfortable, then maybe they need to start creating straight male bathrooms. It can be pretty uncomfortable in some Cal men’s rooms when some glory hole action or worse is going on in the stalls around you.
Daily Cal to female students: you need to just shut up and accept any discomfort you may feel sharing showers with men, so one or two cross-dressers in the building are happy.
Some people’s rights are more important than others, comrade.
Discomfort? Dude, have you ever lived in co-ed housing? I’ve lived in both co-ed and single sex floors, and there isn’t much difference. In fact, the co-ed bathrooms are cleaner since the guys get disgusted with and remove the hair the girls leave in the drains.
Co-ed bathrooms don’t mean you shower with a member of the opposite sex, as much as many desperate college males desire.It just means that men and women use the facilities. Big whoop.
This isn’t about trannies. This is about neurotic students and neurotic parents who think that by sharing bathrooms, the students might – dare I say it – peep on each other in the showers.
For f***’s sake, this is UC Berkeley. You better worry more about the disease vectors on Southside than the imagined threat of juvenile boys peeping over stalls at girls.
How many crossdressers attend Cal vs. the vast majority of student who don’t seem to suffer any confusion over whether they are males or females? I’m willing to bet it’s a heck of a lot less than 1%, which is about the proportion of most single-stall unisex/handicapped facilities in most public facilities. What’s wrong with those people using those facilities instead of demanding special treatment?
In case the members of the SEB have yet to figure it out, neither the UC system nor the state of California as a whole are exactly flush with extra money these days. Building new restroom facilities is not an option when the campus is facing educational cuts, nor is it fair to inconvenience the vast majority of students because a small proportion have some type of confusion over which restroom they should be using.
Time to stop pandering to the small vocal militant minority and let them know it’s time to grow up. Save “dressing up” for the Saturday night drag show at one of those LGBT venues where such behavior is considered acceptable and management/clientele are willing to cater to your particular wants, and stop playing games with the rest of us.
No campus community member should feel uncomfortable simply for being
true to their identity, especially at a progre00ssive institution like
UC Berkeley.
Why does The Daily Cal always have so many misspellings and errors in their articles, even in an important one like this THAT WAS WRITTEN BY THE SENIOR EDITORIAL BOARD??? How do you expect people to take your opinions seriously if you won’t expend even a modicum of effort to ensure such a blatant error in THE FIRST SENTENCE OF THE ARTICLE is fixed before publication?
See comments section of http://www.dailycal.org/2012/08/26/bill-radomir/ for the numerous errors in that article.
No one at this newspaper seems to be proofreading anymore.
The Daily Cal dictionary spells that “profreading.”
Maybe they mean to write “proGROSSive”?