There is an entire community of people whose existence is politicized on a global scale.
Every aspect of their lives are discussed, from the type of pronouns they identify with, to what kind of restrooms are allocated for their use.
Have you ever feared for your life when entering a public restroom?
A majority of people may say they haven’t, but for transgender and/or gender non-conforming students, safely navigating public restrooms is an everyday act of survival.
Although we live in an area that is more progressive than most of the country, countless transgender and/or gender non-conforming students face harassment when it comes to accessing public restrooms.
This is a huge problem that an increasing number of San Jose State students have come to address.
According to a 2015 survey conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality, more than half of those who participated said that they will avoid public restrooms because of fear of assault and/or harassment.
The survey consisted of 28,000 participants, which means more than 14,000 individuals said using a public bathroom was challenging because of the risks of being harassed or physically harmed.
Throughout the Trump administration, the fatality rate for trans folks reached an all time high. The Human Rights Campaign released a statement on the amount of hate crimes directed toward transgender and/or gender non-conforming communities.
The statement lists that, “In 2018, advocates tracked at least 26 deaths of transgender people in the United States due to fatal violence.”
These crimes are specifically directed at the transgender community, simply because of the fact that our very existence is politicized and considered a threat.
The solution to this influx in transgender hate crimes is to create more space for trans people, especially accessible bathrooms.
On our university campus, there are currently 40 gender-neutral restrooms, and less than half of these restrooms are completely accessible to students.
And I say “completely” accessible, because while some of these restrooms are gender-neutral, they are not always easy to access.
In order to use the gender-neutral bathrooms located in Clark Hall, students must retrieve an access code.
In the library, the single gender-neutral restroom is allocated for staff use only.
There are also gender-neutral multi-stall restrooms located in the on-campus dorms CV2, Joe West and Washburn Hall, but these are strictly for resident use.
This leaves 14 restrooms that are completely accessible to all students.
Having 14 gender-neutral restrooms on a college campus of more than 30,000 students is absurd.
This is especially true in President Trump’s America where an increasing number of transgender people are being killed.
So why are there so few gender-neutral restrooms on campus?
Bonnie Sugiyama, director of SJSU’s Pride Center and Gender Equity Center elaborated that the issue with transgender-friendly restrooms isn’t necessarily that the university doesn’t want to add more restrooms.
It’s just complicated navigating the safety codes that are specific to each building on campus.
“So what it comes down to is the number of bathrooms in the building. Single stall gender-neutral restrooms do not count toward the total amount of bathrooms, which is where we run into a problem,” Sugiyama stated.
While most buildings on campus may have multiple stalls for men and women available, many university buildings are not required by law to designate a gender-neutral restroom which endangers transgender students.
Being assaulted in a public restroom is an incredibly common worry that trans people face every single day.
Without space for us, how are we expected to feel comfortable attending a university such as San Jose State?
Are we supposed to constantly live in fear, running from building to building on campus between classes just to feel safe in a restroom? Because we absolutely shouldn’t have to do such a thing.
With businesses such as Target and Starbucks implementing gender-neutral restrooms, it’s appalling that a publicly funded university has very few gender-neutral restrooms.
