Proposal that would change 2 facilities in each building on campus goes before the student government for a vote on Jan. 10
Kristopher Sharp
HOUSTON — Transgender and gender-nonconforming students at the University of Houston-Downtown may soon have access to restroom facilities they feel comfortable using.
The university’s student government will consider a proposal on Jan. 10 to change some of the gender-segregated restrooms to gender-neutral ones.
Kristopher Sharp, openly gay student body vice president, said he pushed for the initiative after realizing that transgender and gender-nonconforming students felt uncomfortable using the on-campus restrooms.
Many in the LGBT community know Sharp as the candidate who was targeted for being gay and HIV-positive. He went on to win the election in the spring.
Since then, he said he’s helped address “some of the issues in the university that have made certain populations inequitable to the rest of the population.”
He helped create a GLBT resource center on campus, amend the nondiscrimination policy to include sexual orientation and gender identity in the student handbook, create a diversity committee in the student government focused on finding underrepresented populations, such as international, veteran and LGBT students. A similar diversity committee was also created for administration for faculty, staff and students to look at diversity issues at the university.
“We began to see that, in many ways, our university was disproportionally leaving out the transgender population, which we have a sizeable transgender population on campus,” Sharp said.
After hearing of confrontations in restrooms from trans students, many who now go off campus to use a restroom, he said the proposal was written. It calls for two restrooms in each building, a women’s and a men’s, to be changed to gender-neutral.
While some universities have single-use restrooms on campus, UHD doesn’t. Sharp said he’d eventually like to see those added. But for now, he said changing the signs would be the most cost-effective and quickest way to help students.
“That’s an issue that we have,” he said about not having any single-use restrooms on campus. “I would advocate for those in the long run. I think those are the best option. They don’t cause a lot of controversy. We don’t have a lot of people who are upset about this. … All you have to do is change the signs. It’s completely free.”
Sharp said reports that students have threatened to leave the university if the measure passes are false. He said the proposal has a multitude of support and is expected to pass — making UHD the first university in Texas to have gender-neutral restrooms.
“We’d have to educate people on what gender neutral is,” he said. “That actually creates a great opportunity to talk about issues with the community. That’s what academia is about. It’s about learning, it’s about being open to new ideas, it’s about really growing into being an individual who’s cultured and cultivated, and I think this is a wonderful way to do that.”
If the measure passes, Sharp said he’d meet with the administration to discuss where the restrooms will be located and what they’ll be called.
Latashia Seward, an alumna who graduated in May, said she’s a butch lesbian who was laughed at when using the women’s restrooms on campus. She would often wait to use the restroom until she was at home or leave campus at times. She said she found refuge in one building on a floor listed as a safe zone for LGBT students, so she’d use the restroom there.
But she hopes the gender-neutral restrooms prevent future students from taking such precautions or risking their health by waiting to use the bathroom like she did.
“I think it definitely is going to be a positive thing for GLBT students and transgender students,” she said. “Anytime you can have a safe place to use the restroom and take your time is [a good thing].”
Heather Strange, a junior at UHD, said she’s had trans and gender-nonconforming friends who’ve been approached in restrooms and asked why they’re using that sex’s facility. She said it’s vital for students to have a restroom where “they’re not going to be afraid of someone confronting them or being told that they shouldn’t be there.”
“It’s very important that they have a safe place for them to go,” she said. “There’s a need for gender-neutral restrooms.”
Katy Stewart, executive director of the Transgender Education Network of Texas, said she applauded UHD’s actions in pushing for the creation of the gender-neutral restrooms.
“It sends a clear message that transgender students are welcome,” she said. “Students need to feel, in order to do their best, need to feel welcome.
“It sets a precedent that transgender students will be respected like everyone else, and I think that’s a good thing,” she added.
Stewart said other colleges and businesses have begun discussing restroom facilities and how to be more inclusive. One business in Houston, Frankel’s Costume Company, changed its restrooms to gender neutral after hearing about UHD’s story on a local news station.
Sharp said he wants the UHD proposal to show that the university takes LGBT issues seriously and aims to include every student, and he hopes more Texas universities follow the university’s lead.
“This should be the norm,” Sharp said. “We have transgender people everywhere. We don’t need to act like they don’t exist or they’re only in California.”
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 3, 2014.