Running head: THE RESTROOM

The Restroom: Transgender Anxiety and Social Acceptance

Ian Witherby
Boston College
School of Social Work

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Abstract
People of gender identity and sexual orientation minorities are subject to more than their
share of discrimination and interpersonal & political violence. LGBTQ youth are especially
susceptible to this kind of trauma and are much more likely than their heterosexual and cisgender
peers to commit suicide.
Unlike sexual orientation, gender identity in general is essentially revealed by default.
Transgender individuals experience significant anxiety related to social situationsin particular,
when using public restroomspartially because of their visibility and fear of repercussions for
their actions. As a result of these anxieties, transgender and gender-fluid advocates are pushing
school districts and public places to remove same-sex restrictions from their restrooms in order
to be more inclusive and to better support the physical and mental health of gender nonconforming individuals.
Reactions to these proposals generate responses from the general public ranging from
discomfort to outright vitriol. This paper frames and defines this sensitive issue and provides
both positive and negative reactions to these new social attitudes. Additional legal perspectives
are considered and the gender binary is briefly discussed.
Finally, reflections on the issue as it parallels with the LGB movement for marriage
equality are offered.

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The Restroom: Transgender Anxiety and Social Acceptance

Negative emotional, psychological, and social outcomes for LGBTQ young people have
been identified throughout both educational and social service spheres. Academics and policy
makers alike have demonstrated the severe negative health effects of bullying and simple lack of
understandingup to and including deathon Americas LGBTQ youth. Kopels (2012) echoes
this broad sentiment by remarking that the effect[s] of bullying on LGBTQ youths are well
documented, with the mental health aspects especially staggeringand further, that bullying
towards LGBTQ youths has been positively correlated in their depression and suicidal ideation
and attempts. LGBTQ youth are at risk not only of negative mental effects, but also physical
distress. These students are at an increased risk of using alcohol and/or drugs. Other
impacts include sleep disturbance, unsafe sexual behavior, and anxiety. Educational outcomes are
also affected.
Transgender people generally report significant anxieties related to social situations, as
well as to bathing and bathroom situations (Tishelman et al., 2015). Testa et al. (2015) were so
concerned about the extent of these anxietiesand the lack of a proper measure for themthat
they are actively constructing one (The Gender Minority Stress and Resilience measure). They
noterather alarminglythat like their school-age counterparts, a large percentage of older
transgender people experience discrimination and physical and sexual violence, leading to a
greatly increased risk of suicide or suicide attempt (Testa et al., 2015). In other words, it doesnt
always get better.

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In recent years, public perception of the rights of and responsibilities of LGB people has
softened. The string of states approving laws for or overturning restrictions against same-sex
marriage is a visible sign of this growing acceptance.
However, as much progress has been made towards social acceptance of people who
identify as LGB, the public has been slower to accept the idea of transgender rights as a realistic
next step. Gender dysphoria presents earlier than sexual identity, meaning that young people who
identify as transgender are even more at risk for familial rejection and general social
ostracization than their LGB peers. Further, some LGBTQ youth
experience a general lack of response and blatant discrimination from teachers and staff
within their schools About one-fifth of students reported that teachers or school staff
were present when bullying toward LGBTQ students occurs; however, 62 percent of
these students reported that staff interventions occurred only some or none of the time.
(Kopels, 2012).
For these school-age transgender children, the first and most prevalent form of public
gender assignment is the use of school bathrooms. For older transgender people, theseemingly
most fundamental embodiment of gender separation is the single-sex, multi-user bathroom.
Transgender youth report significant distress when forcedby law or customto use a
bathroom incongruent with their true gender identity; this confusion and anxiety persists
throughout school years and into adulthood. When coupled with fact that school staff are likely
to be unresponsive to these feelingsand when the public is unwilling or unable to reexamine
their deeply-felt concept of gender segregationthe scope and scale of personal distress and

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anxiety that transgender people feel while deciding which restroom to use can be fully
appreciated.
Framing and Definition of the Issue
The most important aspect of the publics framing of transgender rights is a fundamental
misunderstanding of the nature of gender identity. For many, gender identity is synonymous with
sexual orientation. This suggests that education may be helpful in advocates efforts. Other
detractors believe that a lack of parental discipline is the case of gender dysphoria; still more
hold that the supposed right to be comfortable in a gender-specific bathroom takes precedence
over anothers gender expression. Kopas 2012 discovery that a strong sense of entitlement to
gendered bathrooms often emerged during [focus group] discussions, as did confusion about the
idea that anyone might want or need gender-neutral bathroom spaces in the first place shows the
scope of general public ignorance.
Two years after Kopas study, a CBS poll found that only 23 percent of Americans age
30 and older think transgender students should be able to pick which [bathroom] facilities to use,
compared to 35 percent of Americans under 30 (CBS News, 2014). Even younger
demographics, who arguably have more experience with and knowledge of transgender issues,
fail to fully support more inclusive and accommodating measures. It should come as little
surprise that lawmakers are generally abiding by the desires of their constituents in not proposing
or pushing for protective legislation & school policy changes.
While transgender students are not the only transgender people to experience anxieties
surrounding bathroom use, the proximity of facilities and lack of other options presented in
school environments mean that these students have no choice but to suffer through their fears; it

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also means that these cases are most studied, as theyre more visible in general (there are also
many more opportunities in schools for ancillary trauma such as bullying and other forms of
violence, meaning they may be of more interest to researchers). As a result, any discussion
surrounding transgender people and bathroom use must necessarily involve school-age youth.
These perspectives are included here, but their inclusion should not be taken as an assertion that
the accommodation debate should be restricted to school policy or procedure. The gender binary
and all its social ramificationsrun far deeper than the K-12 system.
Three alternatives to the traditional single-sex multi-user restroom model have been
proposed and implemented: single-sex single-user, mixed-sex multi-user, and mixed-sex single
user1. For the purposed of this paper, these alternatives will be discussed en masse.
Negative Reactions
A recent student-faculty meeting at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts
attempted to address several proposed policy changes surrounding gender identity and
bathrooms. Multiple attendees proposed having residence-hall bathrooms become genderopen, but acknowledged the concern of a pushback from other community
members (University Wire, 2015)including requiring changes to Tufts building code policy
and the cost of renovating existing facilities to accommodate the proposed changes. These
concerns are paralleled for primary and secondary schools facilities, many of which are in
districts already struggling with declining cash flows.

Some transgender and gender-fluid advocates prefer a gender neutral apparatus in order to reduce

social dependence on the entrenched gender binary of male v. female. While they are fundamentally
different, the terms gender neutral and mixed-sex are used interchangeably throughout this paper.

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In her 2014 article, Elizabeth Brown articulates what she defines as the biggest obstacle
to transgender bathroom equality: modern building codes.
Americas public restrooms are regulated by two separate federal agencies. Workplace
restrooms are the purview of the U.S. Department of Labor, which sets state guidelines
through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Non-workplace
public restroom guidelines are governed, broadly, by the Department of Health and
Human Services.More specific regulations are largely enacted though through state and
municipal building codes. These codes dictate exactly how many toilets and/or urinals
that buildings, businesses, and other public entities must provide, based on occupancy
capacity. And they mandate not only the existence of separate mens and womens
bathrooms but also how many "fixtures"(toilets or urinals) must exist for each. (Brown,
2014, emphasis added).
The inherent complexity of amending, removing, or otherwise altering these extensive
regulations from even one of these agencies building codes beggars belief. The implication is
that changing the codes is simply too much work for not enough benefit.
In anticipation of Californias state-wide equal access bill, several conservative bodies
predicted chaos in schools if the bill were to pass. Fox News framed the measure as a
"bathroom bill" [calling it a] shameless attempt to prop up the right-wing [assertion] that
transgender protections will be exploited by sex offenders who want to infiltrate opposite sex
bathrooms (Maza, 2013).
Kopas 2012 analysis of focus group information led him to conclude that one of the most
cited arguments against mixed-sex restrooms involves

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a particular view of risk and understanding of who is most likely to harm children In
such an understanding, a mixed-gender bathroom would create a kind of moral hazard,
insofar as it would be attractive to pedophiles who might exploit the space for their own
purposes.
Kopas also notes that above all else, the characteristic of mixed-sex restrooms that participants
found most repugnant was danger to women.
Besides the alleged safety concerns with mixed-gender settings, there is little evidence
that training school personnel to better advocate for LGBTQ student rights is effective (that is,
even if supportive policies were to be enacted, administrators would (1) neither have the
inclination to implement them, nor (2) guarantee that those implementations would be
productive).
Greytak (2013) highlights the fact that the actual impact, particularly long-term impact,
of inservice professional development program[s] has gone relatively unexamined. If educators
are to utilize evidence-based practices & policies in the administration of their districts, schools,
and techniquesespecially regarding transgender studentsmore research may be needed
before action (such as establishment of gender-neutral bathrooms or upholding students right to
choose which bathroom they use) is taken on a large scale.
Positive Reactions
In an editorial from the Portland Press Herald, author Greg Kesich parallels the treatment
of transgender students with another minority group: left-handed students. He quotes 30-year
veteran teacher Betty

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Parsons [and] compares [gender] identity to the way people are right- or left-handed.
There was a time when schools forced left-handed students to write with their right hand,
which proved to be an impediment to learning and in some cases psychologically
destructive. Forcing a child into a [gender] identity that doesn't fit has at least as bad a
result. (Kesich, n.d.)
He also remarks that accommodation may not be psychologically easy, but that it can be
accomplished with little actual effort from the community, and that some discomfort with
bathroom choice is both predictable and acceptable.
Greytak et al. (2013) did findthrough their quasi-experimental study on inservice
LGBTQ awareness school-based trainingthat building administrators exhibited lower
awareness of anti-LGBT behaviors at baseline than teachers or mental health professionals [but]
they were more certain of their abilities to address these anti-LGBT behaviors. This implies that
given the correct training and education, policy- and program-creators at the service level may be
more amenable to implementing pro-transgender directives such as bathroom choice or genderneutral options.
Some opponents of mixed-gender facilities believe that allowing transgender people
access to the bathroom of their choice will result in victimization or harassment of those people
already using the facilities; however,
there is no indication that laws allowing trans[gender] people to use the restroom that
corresponds to our gender identity and expression will result in an increase in sexual
perpetration or increased opportunities for such. Trans[gender] people are not sexual

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perpetrators, and [are actually] at more risk of victimization [than their restroom-mates].
(Kailey, n.d., emphasis added)
Proponents of transgender-affirmative policy hold that such assumptions are baseless and believe
that fact that it makes me uncomfortable cannot be used in any reasoned defense of existing
attitudes.
Later in his 2012 thesis, Kopas debunks many of the more visceral defenses of same-sex
restrooms; transgender advocates
have often pointed out that the mere existence of a sign labeled women on a bathroom
door does not prevent anyone from entering it [meaning that women are actually more at
risk with segregated facilities] Gender separation means that somebody looking to
assault a woman reliably knows where to look Second the image of sexual assault
implied by fears about mixed-gender bathrooms draws from the myth that most sexual
assaults are committed by strangers rather than relatives or acquaintances. Finally,
activists have sought to shift the conversation from the alleged risks to non-transgender
women in mixed-gender bathrooms to the harsh realities of violence faced by transgender
people in gender-segregated public bathrooms. (Kopas, 2012)
The subtext running throughout Kopas analysis of the focus groups responses is extremely
critical of these common excuses.
Legal Context & Opinon
In an effort to define legal protections for transgender students, many advocacy groups
have taken up suit against school districts, alleging discrimination and seeking protective court
rulings. In the first ruling of its kind, the Maine Supreme Court in 2014 found that school

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officials violated state anti-discrimination law when they would not allow a transgender fifthgrader to use the girls' bathroom (Sharp, 2014). A similar case in Colorado found that a
Colorado Springs school district violated 6-year-old Coy Mathis' rights by denying her access to
the girls' restroom (Brinker, 2014). Early in 2014, a transgender North Carolina college
[student was] detained by a security officer and sent home for using the womens
bathroom (Hensley, 2014). She was then suspended from classes for allegedly not producing
her college ID when asked by the officer, and will be allowed back on campus only after she
produces medical documents that prove shes a female and until then, she [will] have to use the
gender-neutral bathroom (ibid.).
Recognition of these feelings and the lack of appropriate legislation has inspired
advocacy groups and progressive lawmakers to begin to investigate correcting the problem. In
2013, Californias Democratic Governor Brown put forth legislation which
would require public schools to allow transgender students to choose which school teams
they wish to join based on their gender identity. The bill would also allow transgender
students to use restrooms and facilities that match their gender identity. (Maza, 2013).
The United States Department of Justice, in a brief filed in support of a transgender
student in February of 2014, maintained that the United States has a significant interest in
ensuring that all students, including transgender students, have the opportunity to learn in an
environment free of discrimination and that the proper legal standards are applied to claims
under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause (Trager, 2015). Further, the counsel for the
plaintiffJames Rasornoted that the

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rights that are being violated [including, according to the court filings, misgendering by
school officials, continued harassment and bullying from his peers; segregated bathroom
usage; breaches of teacher-parent confidentiality in regards to the plaintiff's medical
history; and sex-based discrimination from district officials] are important United States
constitutional rights. (ibid.)
Whether or not gender identity will be brought under the umbrella of Title IXas some have
argued LGB rights should be, especially as regards same-sex marriageis a question only the
U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately be able to answer conclusively.
Social Expectations and the Gender Binary
Arguments opposed to the idea of mixed-gender, multi-user restrooms may be so
common because their intuitive appeal crosses ideological linesthey simultaneously resonate
with both feminist concerns for womens safety in public and traditionalist beliefs about mens
sexuality as uncontrollable and predatory (Kopas, 2012). Participants in Kopas study did come
to the conclusion that while granting that women might legitimately perceive the [mixed] space
to be unsafe or feel uncomfortable in a mixed-gender bathroom, they challenged the notion that
the arrangement would be less safe than any other public space (ibid.). Referencing a common
fear when providing mixed gender restrooms is child safety, Kopas focus group study revealed
that
the argument that mixed-gender bathrooms would be physically unsafe for children was
contested by opposing claims that the space would prevent the need for parents to send
their children unsupervised into a public bathroom without them. (ibid.)
Kopas concludes the study by reemphasizing that

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the gender boundaries enforced by the public toilet are at once immensely naturalized
and immensely policed, the most taken-for-granted social categorization and the most
fiercely regulated. Mixed-gender bathrooms threaten this taken-for-granted, yet fiercely
defended system, especially as segregated bathrooms come to perform more and more of
the symbolic work involved in maintaining it as other forms of gender segregation and
differentiation fall out of practice. (ibid.)
It may be that the last bastion of fiercely regulated gender segregation will eventually fall, just
as other forms have beenand continue to beabandoned.
Reflection
Opinions on transgender identity remain sharply divided. There is a parallel to be made
between transgender rights and the state of LGB rights approximately 20 years agomass
misinformation and a general lack of education influence public opinion to an alarming degree.
Through patience, legal action, and steadfast resolve, LGB advocates succeeded in their quest for
social and marital equality. Hearts and minds will follow.
Because of the fundamentally different nature of gender identity (versus sexual
orientation), the transgender population has been mostly left behind (there are transgender
advocates who vehemently malign the association of T with LGB). New methods for social
inclusion of and sensitivity to transgender people must necessarily include broadening our
understanding of what is and is not acceptable social belief and behavior. While it is tempting to
legislate based on our comfort (or discomfort), these feelings must not be a part of the legislative
processand surely any discrimination resulting from our discomfort must not be a part of our
best selves.

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There are understandable barriers to developing either mixed-sex or gender neutral

restroomsbuilding codes, safety concerns, individualistic fervorand without the proper
education and awareness, people cannot be expected to provide honest and reasonable solutions
to this social problem.

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