Trans students pleased by LU's gender-neutral bathrooms

Ryan Wildgoose is a fourth-year history student at Laurentian University. He's also a transgender man who started physically transitioning two months ago. That makes using the bathroom on campus a bit tricky.

“Especially when you're as early on in the transition as I am ... it can be kind of frightening to use the gendered bathroom,” he said. “I go into the men's washroom all the time and people give me weird looks.”

He said he was happy when signs designating several single-stall washrooms on campus as being for either men or women were taken down, and they were instead designated as gender neutral washrooms.

These washrooms can now be found in the student centre in the Parker Building, at the Laurentian University School of Architecture and at Thorneloe University.

Multi-stall washrooms on campus remain gendered. The university said it plans to build more gender-neutral washrooms as part of construction associated with its campus modernization process.

“I know I've heard some comments from people, and they think it's incredibly unnecessary,” Wildgoose said.

“Some people think you should just suck it up. But there are other people who think it's a great idea, because it doesn't just affect the trans community, it affects everybody else.

“Some people like the idea of a single-stall private bathroom, as opposed to going in and being surrounded by other people.”

Laurentian University project manager Stephen Roberge said the gender-neutral bathrooms came about as a result of a 2012 survey on LGBT issues distributed to students, faculty and staff.

“We noticed there was a great need for them,” he said.

Roberge said he's only heard positive comments so far.

“So far everybody is happy about it,” he said. “I haven't heard any bad comments. A bathroom is a bathroom. Everybody has the right to use the bathroom. There's no big issues.”

When asked if it would be possible to make all washrooms on campus gender neutral, Roberge said that's not practical right now. It would cost too much money to remove the urinals from the men's washrooms and put in stalls instead, he said.

Vincent Bolt said he's also thrilled some washrooms on Laurentian's campus are now designated gender-neutral.

Bolt, also a transgender man, is the project co-ordinator at TG Innerselves, a local support and advocacy group for transgender people. He's a third-year Laurentian social work student.

When Bolt first started attending Laurentian in 2008 (he also has an English degree from the university), he had just started on hormone therapy.

Even though he did his best to present as male, he was often mistaken for a tomboy. Because he'd already been harassed in a public restroom, he was afraid of the same thing happening on campus.

“I had that anxiety when it came to going to the bathroom between classes, and when you're there from 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., it's going to happen,” Bolt said.

“I only used the men's washroom, but I was always afraid of something happening and being challenged. I would seek out men's washrooms that were in less occupied hallways.”

While Bolt said he's happy about the changes, he reminds everyone that transgender people have the right under the Ontario Human Rights Code to use the washroom designated for the sex with which they self-identify.

They shouldn't be told they have to use the gender-neutral washroom just because they're transgender, he said.

Nevertheless, Bolt said he'd like to see washrooms of this type in every public building. And you can expect to see more and more gender-neutral washrooms because of a change in the law, he said.

“Under the Ontario Human Rights Code, as of January 2015, all new construction or buildings undergoing major renovations have to have at least one gender-neutral washroom for every three floors,” Bolt said.