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Danielle Durst
Professor Sabatino Mangini
English Composition 100
10 December 2015
Bathroom Problems
Transgender1 is an extremely hot topic right now with many debates hovering around it one in
particular is what bathroom should they use? With all the possibilities of assault from people
pretending to be transgendered like Christopher Hambrook who Under the name Jessica, he
was able to get into the womens shelter, where he sexually assaulted several women in 2012, the
Toronto Sun reports (Baklinski). People pretending to be transgender in a segregated bathroom
society can be extremely dangerous for Cisgender woman, not because of the allowance of
Transgender people but because of this one individual intention. Christopher Hambrook is not
Transgender he took advantage of Ontario governments new gender identity bill, dubbed the
bathroom bill, passed in 2012 (Baklinski), which allows transgender individuals use the
bathroom they are most comfortable with.
He dress up as a woman even though he identifies as male just so he could be in an environment
where he could potentially get a woman alone in a vulnerable state.
Cisgender 2individuals assaulting transgender individuals is a huge issue as well with an incident
that happened at Hercules Middle/High School where a 15-year-old student was assaulted, who
1 A non- gender conforming individual
2 A gender conforming individual

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is biologically female but identifies as male, told officers he was leaving a boy's bathroom at
Hercules Middle/High School when three teenage boys pushed him inside a large stall and
assailed him. (BURKE)
Even just pure inconvenience can be an issue like for Lila Perry who is able to participate on
female sports teams but is unable to use the female locker room. Mara Keisling who is the
executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality stated in an article on the
room for debate website stating The girl misses instructions with her team. She's been made late
for class. And being singled out reinforces a sense of differentness. (Keisling)
Reading about assaults, discrimination and inconvenience like these clearly show that only
having segregated bathrooms is not an efficient system not only for the transgendered
community but many Cisgender people also experience difficulty in segregated bathrooms.
Parents with differently gendered children are not able to accompany them in segregated
bathrooms, a mother with her son or a father with his daughter. Disabled people with differently
gendered attendants or family members are not able to bring them into segregated multi-stall
bathrooms. Gender neutral bathrooms could create private, individual spaces that are accessible
to all people.
Once again safety pops into our minds, if the bathroom is gender neutral then anyone can just
walk in but the reality is that segregated bathrooms do not prevent sexual assault they only
provide an illusion of safety, womens bathrooms do not provide any physical barrier to potential
predators, who can just as easily walk through an unlocked door that reads women as any other
unlocked door. Multiple person gender neutral bathrooms could potentially provide more safety.
Since these bathrooms would be more public it is less likely that a woman would be alone.

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Multiple person gender neutral bathrooms can be constructed for maximum safety for example
stalls with locking doors that go from floor to ceiling without gaps and for the single stall gender
neutral bathrooms safety is a given because they are made to be accessible to only one person at
a time.
Gender neutral bathrooms can create a third option for people who are comfortable with sharing
spaces with people who may not be the same gender as themselves. Just like other bathrooms,
gender neutral bathrooms maintain privacy.
There will always be segregated bathrooms but the important thing is that there are other options
equally accessible for everyone.

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Works Cited
Keisling, Mara. "For Transgender Students, Disparate Treatment Is Discrimination."
Nytimes.com. Nytimes, 5 Nov. 2015. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/11/05/transgender-students-in-high-schoollocker-rooms/for-transgender-students-disparate-treatment-is-discrimination>.

Baklinski, Peter. "Sexual Predator Jailed after Claiming to Be transgender to Assault Women in
Shelter." LifeSiteNews. Lifesitenews.com, 4 Mar. 2014. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.
<https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/sexual-predator-jailed-after-claiming-to-be-transgender-inorder-to-assault>.

McCormack, Simon. "Transgender Teen Assaulted In High School Bathroom In San Francisco
Suburb: Cops." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 4 Apr. 2014. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/04/transgender-teen-assaultedbathroom_n_4899398.html>.