University of California to add ‘gender neutral’ bathrooms to accomodate transgenders
The University of California will be designating gender neutral restrooms for transgender students at all of its 10 campuses.
University of California President Janet Napolitano’s office said in a statement that the action stems from an effort to make the system more welcoming to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.
Under the plan, all single-stall restrooms at University of California campuses will be converted to gender-neutral facilities, officials said, and newly built and renovated campuses will also have such accommodations that can be used by everyone.
University of California officials do not have details on how many single-stall restrooms exist at the system’s 10 campuses, which in total serve about 238,000 students, nor how much it will cost to convert them, said Brooke Converse, a spokeswoman for the system.
Genny Beemyn, of the LGBT group Campus Pride said that the University of California is the first known university to make such a move.
University of California President Janet Napolitano has also established a policy that allows transgender students to have the names that they wish to be called put in campus records, even before students legally change their names to reflect upon upon their gender identities.
Public schools already have a mandate for students in the state’s kindergarten-through-grade-12 system after California last year approved the first state law in the United States requiring public schools to allow transgender students to choose which restrooms they want to use.
Dear writer,
Please refrain from using the terms ‘transgendered’ and ‘transgenders.’
See excerpt below:
Problematic Terms
Problematic: “transgenders,” “a transgender”
Preferred: transgender people, a transgender person
Transgender should be used as an adjective, not as a noun. Do not say, “Tony is a transgender,” or “The parade included many transgenders.” Instead say, “Tony is a transgender man,” or “The parade included many transgender people.”
Problematic: “transgendered”
Preferred: transgender
The adjective transgender should never have an extraneous “-ed” tacked onto the end. An “-ed” suffix adds unnecessary length to the word and can cause tense confusion and grammatical errors. It also brings transgender into alignment with lesbian, gay, and bisexual. You would not say that Elton John is “gayed” or Ellen DeGeneres is “lesbianed,” therefore you would not say Chaz Bono is “transgendered.”
Thank you,
Rebby Kern
Campus Pride
source: http://www.glaad.org/reference/transgender