By: Jade Rayner News Editor
At Western, there are multiple all-gender restrooms that can be found across campus. However, finding gender neutral or all-gender restrooms becomes increasingly difficult when 
wandering beyond campus.
In 2014, REFUGE Restrooms was created “to provide restroom access for transgender, intersex and gender nonconforming individuals,” as stated on www.refugerestrooms.org. The service began as a website originally, but has recently become an application that can be downloaded for free on both Android and Apple devices.
As explained in further detail on their website, the purpose behind creating REFUGE was, “one of the biggest battlefields upon which the fight for transgender rights is taking place daily are restrooms. It seems that every other week a transgender child is made the center of a national news story because they used the restroom assigned to the gender they identify with. Obviously, we believe that every transgender person should have the right to use the restroom they want to. However, we also realize that despite legislative victories in recent years regarding restroom usage, many transgender individuals still face both verbal and physical harassment simply for using the restroom. Nobody should have to face that.”
A similar online resource, Safe2Pee, was created in 2005. When the website stopped working in 2014, REFUGE gathered their first 4,500 resources from the Safe2Pee database and continued the effort to locate safe bathrooms.
REFUGE Restrooms continues to be a growing, collaborative resource between the designers and users of the application; it is encouraged that users pin locations of safe restroom locations, meaning all-gender or unspecified single-stalls when they come across ones that have not already been added to the map.
For more information regarding the application, and for ways to get involved visit www.refugerestrooms.org or download the application for free.
Those who would like a list of all-gender restrooms at Western can find them at https://wou.edu/wp/safezone/on-campus.
Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu
