Yale University to introduce gender neutral bathrooms
A top Ivy League school has become the latest institution to introduce gender-neutral bathrooms on campus.
Yale University in Connecticut has brought in the restrooms as legislators in states across the country battle over where people should have a right to pee.
The announcement included an interactive map of where to find 332 gender neutral bathrooms across the campus in New Haven and took place ahead of the Ivy League school’s 315th commencement address.
Tamar Gendler, Dean of Yale’s faculty of Arts and Sciences, told the Associated Press that “Yale aims to be a leader on this front.”
She said: “Part of what is important about the all-gender bathroom project, and about putting it at the top of our commencement site, is this is about public signaling.”
The university has also taken further steps to help its trans and intersex students.
It now uses students’ preferred pronouns, covers gender reassignment costs under the student health plan and allows students to change names on identification cards.
As of 2015, around 150 colleges and universities across the United States incorporated gender-neutral bathrooms into official policy, according to a “Restrooms for All” policy paper from New York City comptroller Scott Stringer.
Pro-LGBT changes come as other states fight to introduce discriminatory discrimination.
In 21 states, there have been proposed anti-trans bills, many aimed at limiting access to bathrooms based on sex.
Both North Carolina and Mississippi have passed some of the most anti-LGBT in the nation.
Numerous bands and performers have abandoned plans to perform in the states and in both, tourist boards have noticed less tourists visiting.
The US Federal Government have also launched legal action against North Carolina’s HB2, accusing it of “overreach”.
Even in states considered to be more liberal, such as New York, lawmakers have attempted to introduced measures requiring people to use bathrooms based on their “biological sex” at birth. On May 12, a New York Republican representative, Dean Murray, introduced such legislation, though it’s not likely to make it into law.
Last week, New York City passed an ordinance that required landlords and business owners to refer to people by their preferred pronoun, including “ze”.
