What is gender? This is a question that has stumped many people. Gender, to many people, is just male and female, but in reality, it is a whole spectrum. Schools are disrespectful students that don’t identify as the gender on their birth certificate. The lack of gender neutral bathrooms in schools is an abuse of power by school districts, because the lack of gender neutral bathrooms makes students feel uncomfortable and invalid, they are not expensive when there is already a bathroom available, and they would not go unused. Making gender neutral bathrooms a requirement in middle and high schools in America would be a huge step towards achieving acceptance of transgender and genderqueer students.

Firstly, here is what a gender neutral bathroom is. It is a place for people that don’t identify as the gender they were assigned at birth to feel comfortable using the bathroom. It is as simple as that. All schools in America are required to have bathrooms for males and females, but they are not required to have bathrooms for people that don’t identify with those two genders. A problem that transgender and gender nonconforming students often face is deciding which bathroom to use, even though they feel uncomfortable in both. According to the Sylvia Rivera project, “trans and gender variant people face severe access problems when it comes to sex-segregated facilities like restrooms, locker rooms, shelters, in-patient drug treatment facilities, prisons and jails, etc.” Everyone has the right to access a public restroom. According to Donald J. Trump, president elect of the USA, transgender people should use "whatever bathroom they feel is appropriate." Although this shows some form of acceptance, many genderqueer people struggle to find an appropriate bathroom. Male and female bathrooms just aren’t enough. Without gender neutral bathrooms, it is inevitable that there will be students in the school that don’t feel valid or accepted. There are so many other genders, and school districts ignoring them is an abuse of power.
Although many people think that gender inclusive bathrooms are expensive and not necessary, they are actually not very expensive at all. Really, all that needs to be done is to purchase a new bathroom sign (these can range from around $16 to $95, but you could even just print out a piece of paper). Next, you really only have to change a bathroom from a cisgender bathroom to a gender neutral bathroom. If, though, there is not an available bathroom, it can be a bit more expensive. In schools with an extra restroom, though, money is no excuse. On top of this, gender neutral bathrooms could also be used as locker rooms for gym class. According to CBS, these are some of the problems people have with transgender people using the locker room they feel most comfortable. "You're saying under this law that a 13-year-old or 14-year-old girl in a locker room has to change and dress and be naked in front of, say, a 16-year-old boy simply because a 16-year-old boy who's a biological boy, but inside has a mental condition called gender identity dysphoria and thinks that he's a girl." Many people don’t understand that it is so much more uncomfortable for transgender students to change in the locker rooms they are ‘supposed’ to. Gender neutral bathrooms would solve this problem though. They could change where they feel comfortable, and nobody would get angry at them because they are not using a bathroom that doesn’t conform with their birth sex. The price of a gender neutral bathroom is worth it, because it will help make everyone in the school feel more comfortable. Price could generally be an issue, but because gender neutral bathrooms are an inexpensive addition, it is an abuse of power.

Gender neutral bathrooms will not go unused, despite what people may say. Although you may think that there are no transgender people in your school/community, you never know who may be thankful for them. On top of this, if there is some sort of an event at the school and families are invited, a parent might need to take their young child of the opposite sex to go into the restroom. The gender neutral restroom would allow them to do this. Also, even if there are no people in the school that would use it now, that does not mean that nobody would use it in the future. Moreover, schools and public buildings are required to have modified stalls for disabled people, even if there are no disabled people there. The main concern of people that the Students for Social Change group at South Orange Middle School interviewed was that people would abuse the gender neutral bathroom by using it when they have no use of it. The members of the group do see and understand the problem, but there is a trust system where females don’t go into the male bathrooms and vice versa, so why can’t there be a trust system where cisgender students don’t use the gender neutral bathroom unless there is good reason. Gender neutral bathrooms should be required, and they will definitely be used.

All in all, there is no reason gender neutral bathrooms should not be a requirement for schools in America. The fact that they are not required is an abuse of power because they make students feel comfortable, cost is not a problem, and they will be used. There is no real reason for them not to become required except for the lack of acceptance of genderqueer and transgender students. It is believed that students might abuse the restroom, but school districts have the power to teach students about how serious of an issue this is. This proves that they are abusing their power, because they have the power to make a change, but instead, they are discriminating against the students that aren’t ‘normal’. By doing this, they are oppressing people for expressing themselves in a way they feel comfortable. If they have the power to make students feel accepted and comfortable, why wouldn’t they use it?

Works Cited
"Born This Way: Stories of Young Transgender Children." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. 20
Dec. 2016.
"CBS News Poll: Transgender Kids and School Bathrooms." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web.
20 Dec. 2016.
"SRLP (Sylvia Rivera Law Project)." SRLP Sylvia Rivera Law Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Dec. 2016.

Special thanks to the members of the Students For Social Change club for helping me find information, and for working hard towards getting gender neutral bathrooms at SOMS.