Gender Neutral Bathrooms at Marquette

Two sources tell us that at least some of the bathrooms at Marquette have been (or will soon be) changed to “gender neutral.” This is true in at least a couple of the dorms, and presumably in other places.

Chris Jenkins (Marquette PR person filling in for Brian Dorrington, who is on leave) has not responded to our e-mail asking for confirmation.

This, presumably, is a concession to transgender people, who claim to feel uncomfortable using a bathroom different from the one of their claimed gender (which would be different from their birth gender). As one activist website puts the rather tortured argument:

The medical community (and increasingly, employers, schools and courts) now recognize that it is essential to the health and well-being of transgender people for them to be able to live in accordance with their internal gender identity in all aspects of life—restroom usage is a necessary part of that experience.

There is nothing terrible about gender neutral bathrooms per se (we all use them on airliners), but there is no good reason to have them either.

The rule should be simple: if you look like a guy, you go to the men’s room. If you lack the “equipment” to step up to the urinal, you just go into the stall. If you look like a woman, you go into the ladies room, where everybody goes into a stall.

This is not rocket science.

Thus the demand for gender neutral bathrooms from the transgender lobby is more a demand for symbolic recognition than a real grievance about a real oppressive condition.

Update

A reliable source of ours says that Zilber, Schroeder, AMU (all floors), Raynor, Lalamiere, Cudahy, Straz all still have bathrooms that say “men” and “women.” One of our sources says “plans are in play,” which would suggest it has not happened yet.

Update 2

Marquette Wire now has a story about this.