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Imagine for a moment that Otis had no bathrooms. Not even one. To some students this is how our

school feels. Transgender individuals already face many difficulties in life and not being

comfortable with using a public bathroom at their own school just adds to their hardships. Now,

there is a pretty interesting idea to fix this problem. Gender neutral bathrooms are becoming more

prevalent in many public settings and, seeing as we are an accepting bunch of individuals, I would

hope most of the students here would be happy with this idea. Anything we can do to help our

fellow classmates feel more comfortable at the school we all spend more than 30 hours a week at

should be a given. Now, I'm not saying this won't be a costly endeavor but can anyone honestly put

a price on another human's comfort? If we don't care about other people's feelings, how can we

expect to grow as a society? Everyone at Otis deserves to feel comfortable in the place we all call

home for about half a decade.


Though the issue at hand addresses the opening of a new gender neutral bathroom, there are also

some other factors to consider.

.2% of the population need not drastically impact the lives of the remaining 99.80 percent.

My issue with gender neutral bathrooms is not with the issue of gender neutrality. Acceptance of

transgendered people is an issue that needs to be addressed, but done so logically. Cultural

acceptance is the solution to this problem, and a far better, more convenient, less costly and longer

lasting one at that.


To physically build, or repurpose bathrooms specifically for those who wish to remain gender

neutral, is in effect to ostracize and further alienate them from society. Our time and effort is better

spent affecting a cultural change for wider acceptance and understanding than segregation through

architecture.


While reflexively creating bathrooms that any and all sex’s can use seems like an easy fix, it falls

apart with further exploration. Are we really going to sacrifice the safety of women to offer some

small token of ineffective acceptance to a mere .2% of the population?


If one in a million is made uncomfortable by a bathroom visit, and it clashes with their lack of

sexual definition then, what about the millions who are going to be uncomfortable making their

daily ablutions amongst members of the opposite sex? Something made verboten by almost every

culture on earth since infancy?

-Shelby & Robert­-