Transgenders and Bathrooms and Locker Rooms

On March 20, 2012, Pitt’s Anti-discrimination Policies Committee (ADPC) were told about a new rule that trans gender students, faculty have to use bathrooms and locker rooms on campus based on the gender they were born, not what they identify.

A lot of people are upset about it and say it goes against the University’s anti discrimination policies. They said the policy can’t discriminate ” on the basis of…gender identity and expression”.

Jane Feuer who is the chair of the ADPC and this group tells the University Senate on discrimination issues said, “a lot of people were really shocked that they had taken such a harsh decision. It was just dropped on us like a bomb.”

At Pitt Johnstown branch, they expelled a trans gender who identified with a male for using the male locker room late 2011.

Before this new rule, there were no bathroom rules and it was judged on an individual basis on the case, which is how the Pitt Johnstown student got expelled.

A resolution was passed in February 2012 from the ADPC that expelling the trans gender student from Pitt Johnstown went against the University’s anti discrimination policy for trans gender students and use of the bathroom.

As a result came the March 20, 2012 new policy that we talked about at the beginning of this article.

Robert Hill of Pitt sent out an email that said the faculty member or student can use the bathroom that is “his or her declared gender identity after he or she has obtained a birth certificate designating the declared gender. ” The email goes on to say, “This does not represent a change in policy. Rather, it is an articulation of a long standing University practice.”

A Pittsburgh advocate for transgender people andtheir rights finds this a problem with this because to have your gender to change on your birth certificate you have to get a sex change. Many transgenders don’t want to do it and of those who do, many cannot afford it.