Starting this year, Northwood High School has two gender-neutral bathrooms.
People Rallying in Defense of Equality (P.R.I.D.E.) is a student-initiated club that supports LGBTQ+ rights. The club submitted a proposal in spring 2016 to re-label single-sex bathrooms as gender-neutral. The administration granted approval, and over the summer break two single-occupancy bathrooms were re-assigned for gender-neutral use.
The three bathrooms are located in the arts hallway, the science hallway and across from the guidance office in Student Services.
Earlier this year on March 23, the North Carolina General Assembly passed House Bill 2, nicknamed “The Bathroom Bill.” Signed by Governor Pat McCrory, a section of this law requires transgender people to use bathrooms within government facilities that matches their assigned birth gender.
The law applies to all public schools in North Carolina. Multiple occupancy bathrooms in schools must remain single-sex. Schools may provide single occupancy bathrooms that are gender-neutral.
As proposed by P.R.I.D.E., the gender-neutral bathrooms were implemented by administration over the summer of 2016 and were open on the first day of class.
Senior Nikolai Mather, member of P.R.I.D.E., says the campaign began at the beginning of last year. The club formed a committee, wrote a proposal and consulted administration about the possibility of creating gender-neutral bathrooms.
Mather said students who identified as transgender, gender-queer and other non-conforming students felt uncomfortable going to the bathroom that corresponds with their assigned gender. The bathrooms were put in place to create a safer space for students, especially those of the LGBTQ+ community.
“I’ve talked to P.R.I.D.E. about treating these bathrooms like they are privileges,” Mather said. “The school can take them away just as easily as they gave them to us. It’s really important that we keep these because not only are they a place where transgender people can actually [use the bathroom] instead of holding it all day, but it’s also a symbol of a progression of better rights for the LGBTQ+ community in North Carolina.”
Melissa Hayden, American History teacher and advisor of P.R.I.D.E., says the development of the bathrooms went well, and the students were successful in making the transition happen.
“I’m really excited,” Hayden said. “I really want to see by the end of the semester how successful they’ve been. For something that’s been such a huge controversy in the media and in the outside world, I’m really hoping to see, and I think we’re going to, such a smooth transition about it. I mean, we really haven’t had any pushback at all. It just seems so natural.”
P.R.I.D.E. members were unsure of the reactions to the bathrooms, but junior Audrey Winn says the overall response is not negative.
“I think it’s been mostly positive,” Winn said. “I’ve gotten people who have said it makes them feel a lot more comfortable, and it just helps them out a lot with feeling like they have a safe place to go to the bathroom.”
Hayden agrees that the reaction to the bathrooms remains mostly positive, and hopes that P.R.I.D.E.’s success will continue.
“Our number one mission at school is to make sure that kids are safe,” Hayden said. “If creating these bathrooms is going to give someone a safe space to be, then that’s what we need to do.”
– By Leah Kallam
