By: Shaylie Pickrell
Freelancer

On the Western campus there are a growing number of locations in which we have all-gender bathrooms. The Equity Committee of the Associated Students of Western Oregon University are working towards making the bathrooms more visible and more comfortable for people who identify outside of the gender binary. Whether they’re using the restroom to make sure their outfit looks good or to actually use the restroom, it’s important to have a safe place for people in any situation. They recently added 20 more locations and hope to soon have a list or map available online, as well as in the Werner University Center.
All-gender bathrooms are family friendly, vary from single to multiple stalls and some locations even have showers available for use. These bathrooms are a way for those who identify outside the gender binary to feel safe and free from the pressures that can sometimes occur when having to use gender specific bathrooms.

If you have any questions about the growing locations of these bathrooms around campus, or simply would like to learn more about gender equality, you can stop by the Stonewall Center or email the equity president, Max Norr, at aswouequity@wou.edu. The Equity Committee is working very hard to make information about these locations more accessible around campus. In the near future, there will be updated maps around campus identifying different bathroom types and their new locations.

Things I want to highlight on the map:
There is at least one all-gender bathroom in every hall and in the most populated places such as the Werner University Center and the Hamersly Library.

Contact the author at spickrell15@wou.edu