Gender Neutral Bathrooms
Claire Madachy '22 Copy Editor
Technically, Howard High has had gender neutral bathrooms for years. However, up until very recently, most did not have proper signage, and were locked or simply in unknown locations. The Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), has been working to change that. Currently, the school has six gender neutral bathrooms, however only three have proper signage.
Gender neutral bathrooms are an issue that trans rights activists have been discussing for many years now. Many trans and non-binary kids do not feel comfortable going into the bathroom of the gender they were assigned as birth, but also do not (or in some cases cannot) go into the bathroom of the gender they identify as. For both safety and comfort, many trans people would rather use single-stalled gender neutral bathrooms than the traditional male/female bathrooms. The trans students at Howard High are no exception.
For many years, trans students at Howard have struggled to find and use the few gender neutral bathrooms scattered across the school (two in the health room, one in the A hallway outside of A122, one in the E building, and two outside the main gym in the F hallway). Onyx Nagiecka, president of the GSA for the 2021-2022 school year, and Mr. Sleichter, club sponsor, wanted to change that. They campaigned with the entire GSA to get proper signage for the bathrooms, as well as alert the student population to the locations of the bathrooms. However, this did not prove to be an easy task. According to Nagiecka, “It was very difficult [to get in touch with the administration]. We had Mr. Sleichter do the emailing for us, and they didn’t even answer him at first.” They go on to explain how the GSA has taken over most of the responsibilities, as the administration has brushed the club off more than once, despite having a specific list of questions to answer in both emails. The one thing the administration has done is begin the process of putting up proper signage. The proper signage does little good, however, if students do not know where to look and the locations are out of the way from regular school traffic.
When asked about what they want as the end goal, Nagiecka responded that “I would want to see everybody in the school to know about the bathrooms. I would like to see students being able to have access to them whenever they need them. This allows us [trans kids] to have a greater degree of safety that we’ve never really experienced before.” Another trans student, who wishes to remain anonymous, stated that “I’m really glad that the school is starting to take these steps. I feel very uncomfortable using both the male and female bathrooms at school, and having gender neutral bathrooms would make things a lot better for me.” Many other trans kids feel similarly, and in the past have expressed their frustrations in either not being able to find the bathroom, or being forced to out themselves when asking a teacher to unlock the bathroom. Having accessible gender neutral bathrooms would make students feel a lot more comfortable in our school.
Gender neutral bathrooms are an issue that trans rights activists have been discussing for many years now. Many trans and non-binary kids do not feel comfortable going into the bathroom of the gender they were assigned as birth, but also do not (or in some cases cannot) go into the bathroom of the gender they identify as. For both safety and comfort, many trans people would rather use single-stalled gender neutral bathrooms than the traditional male/female bathrooms. The trans students at Howard High are no exception.
For many years, trans students at Howard have struggled to find and use the few gender neutral bathrooms scattered across the school (two in the health room, one in the A hallway outside of A122, one in the E building, and two outside the main gym in the F hallway). Onyx Nagiecka, president of the GSA for the 2021-2022 school year, and Mr. Sleichter, club sponsor, wanted to change that. They campaigned with the entire GSA to get proper signage for the bathrooms, as well as alert the student population to the locations of the bathrooms. However, this did not prove to be an easy task. According to Nagiecka, “It was very difficult [to get in touch with the administration]. We had Mr. Sleichter do the emailing for us, and they didn’t even answer him at first.” They go on to explain how the GSA has taken over most of the responsibilities, as the administration has brushed the club off more than once, despite having a specific list of questions to answer in both emails. The one thing the administration has done is begin the process of putting up proper signage. The proper signage does little good, however, if students do not know where to look and the locations are out of the way from regular school traffic.
When asked about what they want as the end goal, Nagiecka responded that “I would want to see everybody in the school to know about the bathrooms. I would like to see students being able to have access to them whenever they need them. This allows us [trans kids] to have a greater degree of safety that we’ve never really experienced before.” Another trans student, who wishes to remain anonymous, stated that “I’m really glad that the school is starting to take these steps. I feel very uncomfortable using both the male and female bathrooms at school, and having gender neutral bathrooms would make things a lot better for me.” Many other trans kids feel similarly, and in the past have expressed their frustrations in either not being able to find the bathroom, or being forced to out themselves when asking a teacher to unlock the bathroom. Having accessible gender neutral bathrooms would make students feel a lot more comfortable in our school.
ELLICOTT CITY, MD, OCTOBER 26, 2021 -The gender neutral bathroom in the F Hallway is now labelled Restroom, letting students know that anyone can use this bathroom. C. MADACHY/LION’S TALE
