Gender Neutral Bathrooms: Equality Versus Discomfort

Every Tuesday and Thursday, after getting out of my Investments class, I dash to the Ratty in an effort to beat the lunch rush. This has more times than not proven to be an unsuccessful strategy, as many who have tried can testify. On one particular Tuesday two weeks ago, I rounded the corner near Phi Psi to find the line once again stretching twenty feet beyond the entrance to the Ratty. Two exceptionally well groomed males, dressed in drag, were directing students through two doors, one marked “female entrance” and the other marked “male entrance.” I had known before this that the issue of gender specific bathrooms versus gender neutral bathrooms was becoming a hot topic on campus, spurred by the publishing of a BDH editorial in support of the latter. What I had not expected were the lengths that advocates would go to in order to get their message out.

Incidents such as this are why I love Brown; at what other place in the country can one find virtually every “traditional” norm being challenged at the drop of a hat? Such protests encourage discussion and enrich debate. On the issue of genderneutral bathrooms, the norm being challenged was the contention that individuals can justifiably be placed in two distinct groups – male and female – and the differences between those groups are great enough to warrant exclusive restroom facilities. The men in dresses outside the Ratty that Tuesday, Patrick Nagle ’10 and Robin Peckham ’10, believe that the provision of restrooms to only two “recognized” genders excludes those who do not identify with either. To correct this situation, they propose that one-third of University bathrooms be classified as “gender neutral.”Weighing the concerns of both sides, I believe, and will argue, that the solution to this problem is to stop campus discrimination against trans-genders etc., classify perhaps one restroom per building as “gender neutral,” and promote the construction of single use bathrooms in new University buildings so long as the cost is not prohibitive.

So-called conservative traditionalists reject the notion that someone could possibly lie outside the gender binary. Those with more liberal leanings on social issues insist that gender is entirely socially constructed, and as such it is cruel and discriminatory to put everyone in categories that have no biological basis. As a libertarian, my view (or “lens,” if you will) is a utilitarian one – I want everyone to be as happy as possible at the least cost. Such a way of looking at the world naturally leads to a rejection of the traditionalist view of what should be done (or not done) regarding the gender neutral bathrooms issue. While I believe that gender has a strong biological component, the truth of this really doesn’t matter; what matters, rather, is what people believe now about gender and how to balance that with the potential discomfort of others who don’t feel the same way. I am optimistic that scientists will sort out these questions some day, but for now this approach is optimal.

When someone objects to seeing two guys make out at a party, he or she is expressing an emotion – an emotion that can be overcome in the same way and for the same reasons that racist feelings can be overcome: they are not based on fact but rather groundless prejudice. Nothing in walking into a men’s restroom dressed in a skirt physically or mentally coerces someone else to do or think anything – everyone is still free to use the restroom as they wish. It is in the act of openly expressing a discriminatory attitude toward someone else, as happened to Robin Peckham in an incident he later recounted in the aforementioned BDH op-ed, that one unnecessarily causes discomfort to an innocent individual, which by any measure is morally wrong. I was fortunate in preparing this piece to be able to interview both of the people who participated in the drag protest outside the Ratty. In my interview with Robin, who identifies as “pan-gender,” he agreed that the primary objective of the gender neutral bathrooms campaign is to eliminate discrimination. However, he sees this as an immediate short term goal in a long term effort to stop sorting individuals by supposed gender and end the current “sexualizing” of restroom usage: