Gender-neutral bathrooms open at UH for all students

When the fall semester gets underway Monday at the University of Hawaii, students at the Manoa, Hilo and West Oahu campuses will have access to more than two dozen gender-neutral restrooms as part of a push to ensure safe and accommodating facilities for all students, including those who are transgender.

At UH Manoa nine single-stall restrooms with locks have been converted to all-gender restrooms, including facilities in Hamilton Library, Holmes Hall, Gartley Hall, Webster Hall, the School of Architecture and the Warrior Recreation Center. And the campus plans to add dozens more.

“This is huge, because so many people need access to these restrooms, especially transgender students, but also students with disabilities, students with children — it benefits everyone,” said Camaron Miyamoto, director of UH Manoa’s LGBTQ Center, who helped coordinate the systemwide effort to get the restrooms in place by the fall.

Miyamoto said the restrooms provide added privacy and safety.

“Folks who are transgender, for example, already have the right to use any restroom that matches their gender identity. This is just for cases where someone needs the additional privacy,” he said, citing as an example younger students who might still be transitioning between genders.

UH-Manoa Chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman said in a statement that the campus “is committed to ensuring a safe, respectful and diverse campus that is free from discrimination and harassment.”

Miyamoto credits student-led campaigns in recent years for bringing attention to the issue. Both the Associated Students of the University of Hawaii, Manoa’s undergraduate student government, and the Graduate Student Organization passed resolutions last year calling for more gender-neutral restrooms on campus.

Some transgender students say they’ve never felt unsafe or intimidated using restrooms on campus that correspond with their gender identity. But they support the new all-gender bathrooms as an opportunity to have a larger conversation about gender identity and transgender rights.

“I use the women’s bathroom, so I’m really not affected by it,” said Sydney Lono, a transgender woman and graduate student at UH Manoa. “But it brings awareness. It actually highlights areas that have not been taught or spoken about. … Really, at the end of the day, that bathroom represents diversity, and with that teaching is going to come a better understanding of respect and acceptance.”

Psychology major Una Flux, who is also transgender, called the move long overdue.

“But I just don’t understand why it’s so specific to transgender people,” she said. “Why make such a big issue when this has been going on for so long? Whether you like it or not, being mahu is always something that we as Native Hawaiians really didn’t look down upon.”

By contrast, some mainland schools have faced controversy when trying to comply with civil rights laws and provide transgender students access to restrooms that match their gender identity. Earlier this year North Carolina became the first state to prohibit people from using restrooms in schools, public universities and other government buildings that do not match the sex on their birth certificates.

Not long after the bathroom bill was signed into law, the Obama administration directed schools nationwide to grant transgender students access to facilities that correspond with their chosen gender identity, citing the federal Title IX law, which prohibits sex discrimination at educational institutions that receive federal funding. A student’s gender identity is treated as their sex for the purposes of Title IX, according to a May 13 letter jointly signed by the U.S. Justice and Education departments.

“A school’s Title IX obligation to ensure nondiscrimination on the basis of sex requires schools to provide transgender students equal access to educational programs and activities even in circumstances in which other students, parents or community members raise objections or concerns,” the letter said. “As is consistently recognized in civil rights cases, the desire to accommodate others’ discomfort cannot justify a policy that singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students.”

Miyamoto, the LGBTQ Center director, says UH was ahead of the federal guidance.

“One thing I’m proud of is that we started working on this and had policy in place in 2009, when the university’s nondiscrimination policy was expanded to include gender identity and expression,” he said. “I think that reflects how Hawaii in general is more accepting of the mahu and the transgender folks. And I also think it shows that we are ahead of the curve.”

At the university’s other four-year campuses, UH Hilo has more than 20 all-gender bathrooms, while UH West Oahu has one and plans to add two more.

“No one should ever feel uncomfortable using our restroom facilities,” UH-Hilo Chancellor Don Straney said in a statement.

Doris Ching, UH West Oahu’s chancellor, added, “I’m pleased that we’re taking this long-awaited and necessary action.”