PapiQueRico
05-25-2007, 03:04 PM
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/2007/05/18/news/17238796.htm :D
Restrooms are changing at Kent State
By Bob Dyer
No, you haven't heard it all.
I don't care if you're 90 years old. I don't care if you're world-weary and jaded. This one you haven't heard.
Kent State University has introduced unisex bathrooms in campus buildings to accommodate transgender students.
I am serious.
A few weeks ago, a third-floor bathroom in the Student Center was relabeled at the request of (choose one) men trapped in women's bodies, women trapped in men's bodies, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and asexuals.
KSU's first transgender bathroom is not far from the Schwebel Garden dining room. You walk past a door that says ``Men'' and a door that says ``Women'' and arrive at the all-purpose, all-gender, all-age, all-anything room of rest.
On that door are four signs, each a blue square with a white figure. One is a woman. One is a man. One is a person in a wheelchair. One is a woman and a man.
April Templeman, the co-chairperson of a campus group called the Queer Liberation Front, told the student newspaper, the Daily Kent Stater, that she was thrilled with this development because it was something her group had lobbied for.
``We went to the administration about this because it's something we've seen on other campuses, and we think it needs to be incorporated into our campus as well,'' she said.
KSU's head architect, Thomas Euclide, agrees, and says Kent hopes to put at least one unisex bathroom in every new building or renovation.
Seriously.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. If you happen to be a transgender person, that's just fine with me. It's fine with a lot of other people, too. But some of us aren't so sure we should be changing public buildings to accommodate people who are ambivalent or unhappy or undecided about their gender.
Let's think about this whole public bathroom equation. What we're really talking about is not mixing people who may feel a sexual attraction to each other, right?
That's the only logical reason to have separate men's and women's restrooms, because, economically, it would be far better to put everybody in one huge room with both urinals and toilets.
So, let's say you have taken the ultimate step and changed your body parts. If you changed into a man, use the men's room!
If we're this worried about sexual orientation in public bathrooms, how can a gay person ever use one? Should we permit only two people of the opposite gender to go inside a gay bathroom at the same time?
And what on earth do we do about bisexuals?
I suppose Kent will figure this all out in due time.
To be fair, Euclide says he hopes the new restrooms also will be used by parents assisting their children and by mothers who want privacy while nursing.
He said his feedback has been nothing but positive.
Kent State's students don't seem too fired up about any of this. Most of the ones I talked to this week near the Student Center simply shrugged and said they didn't care.
One of the few who found fault was Aaron Lahti, a 23-year-old junior. ``I guess it's OK,'' he said, ``but I don't know if there's a great need for it. It almost seems like a waste of money to me.'' Me, too.
And to think the men's rooms at the old Richfield Coliseum had one long on-the-floor trough. Now people are so squeamish they need their own private bathrooms?
At this rate, the Cleveland Cavaliers' next arena will contain hundreds of one-person restrooms.
Imagine those ticket prices
Restrooms are changing at Kent State
By Bob Dyer
No, you haven't heard it all.
I don't care if you're 90 years old. I don't care if you're world-weary and jaded. This one you haven't heard.
Kent State University has introduced unisex bathrooms in campus buildings to accommodate transgender students.
I am serious.
A few weeks ago, a third-floor bathroom in the Student Center was relabeled at the request of (choose one) men trapped in women's bodies, women trapped in men's bodies, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and asexuals.
KSU's first transgender bathroom is not far from the Schwebel Garden dining room. You walk past a door that says ``Men'' and a door that says ``Women'' and arrive at the all-purpose, all-gender, all-age, all-anything room of rest.
On that door are four signs, each a blue square with a white figure. One is a woman. One is a man. One is a person in a wheelchair. One is a woman and a man.
April Templeman, the co-chairperson of a campus group called the Queer Liberation Front, told the student newspaper, the Daily Kent Stater, that she was thrilled with this development because it was something her group had lobbied for.
``We went to the administration about this because it's something we've seen on other campuses, and we think it needs to be incorporated into our campus as well,'' she said.
KSU's head architect, Thomas Euclide, agrees, and says Kent hopes to put at least one unisex bathroom in every new building or renovation.
Seriously.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. If you happen to be a transgender person, that's just fine with me. It's fine with a lot of other people, too. But some of us aren't so sure we should be changing public buildings to accommodate people who are ambivalent or unhappy or undecided about their gender.
Let's think about this whole public bathroom equation. What we're really talking about is not mixing people who may feel a sexual attraction to each other, right?
That's the only logical reason to have separate men's and women's restrooms, because, economically, it would be far better to put everybody in one huge room with both urinals and toilets.
So, let's say you have taken the ultimate step and changed your body parts. If you changed into a man, use the men's room!
If we're this worried about sexual orientation in public bathrooms, how can a gay person ever use one? Should we permit only two people of the opposite gender to go inside a gay bathroom at the same time?
And what on earth do we do about bisexuals?
I suppose Kent will figure this all out in due time.
To be fair, Euclide says he hopes the new restrooms also will be used by parents assisting their children and by mothers who want privacy while nursing.
He said his feedback has been nothing but positive.
Kent State's students don't seem too fired up about any of this. Most of the ones I talked to this week near the Student Center simply shrugged and said they didn't care.
One of the few who found fault was Aaron Lahti, a 23-year-old junior. ``I guess it's OK,'' he said, ``but I don't know if there's a great need for it. It almost seems like a waste of money to me.'' Me, too.
And to think the men's rooms at the old Richfield Coliseum had one long on-the-floor trough. Now people are so squeamish they need their own private bathrooms?
At this rate, the Cleveland Cavaliers' next arena will contain hundreds of one-person restrooms.
Imagine those ticket prices