MACI COSMORE
Special to The Leader
Transgender students are slowly gaining more rights on colleges campuses. Even so, people have begun taking steps to advocate even further, with one student starting a petition for gender neutral bathrooms in Mason Hall.
“I have heard people complain that they have to go to either the Williams Center or McEwen to find a gender neutral bathroom, so it just kind of seems like it’s an on-going issue that needs to be taken care of,” said Mol Stabell, a sophomore public relations major who created the Change.org petition and serves on the Pride Alliance e-board.
The petition was created approximately two weeks ago and since then has over 350 signatures.
“I shared it with my suitemates and that was about it. Then I started seeing it through my Facebook feed that my friends were sharing it,” Stabell said. “Once the petition [is] done, I do have a list of resources that I can take it to.”
One of these resources being Bill Boerner, the chief diversity officer and co-chair of the Chosen Names Policy.
“I support this petition and if there are students who want to work with me or others to perhaps see if we can address this issue, I’m happy to help bring that forward,” said Boerner.
Both Stabell and Boerner said that Mason is behind on receiving gender neutral bathrooms because the building lacks single occupancy restrooms.
“The restrooms that transitioned over to gender nonconforming spaces … were all of our single occupant spaces. I think every single occupant restroom on campus was designated to that maybe a year and a half ago now or two years ago,” Boerner said.
Although the process may seem as easy as bringing the issue to the school and making that change, there’s more that goes into the process than a signature petition.
“My first initial thought to this is I wanna do a little investigating before I bring this forward to the president’s cabinet,” Boerner said. “The president has her direct supervisees, including myself that make up her cabinet. I think this should be a decision that the cabinet either should be informed about or makes for our campus.”
Since Mason Hall is a public building, Boerner believes that creating a space like this would benefit the community.
“Mason Hall is a public space that’s utilized by others within our community. I think there’s an opportunity for us to figure out how we can navigate some of those community expectations as well, seeing as that space is not just for student and for faculty and staff use only,” he said.
The Chosen Names Policy is another example of Fredonia advocating for its transgender and gender nonconforming students.
Stabell commented on the efforts of the Chosen Names Policy.
“I know with the name change program they have been fighting. They created it but they kind of stopped and didn’t put anymore effort towards it until just recently,” said Stabell.
Passed by the University Senate on Jan. 27 of just last year and approved by the Cabinet in August, the Chosen Names Policy states, “Chosen names can be vitally important to our students, faculty and staff for a variety of reasons. For those within the LGBTQ community, they allow the use of a name that properly expresses one’s gender identity … Whatever reason an individual has for using a chosen name, this policy communicates to individuals that they are welcome and valued on our campus.”
“The Chosen Names Policy is in place, but requires a significant amount of work to ensure that our campus is in compliance with the policy that we set forth. So that’s been kind of the focus right now,” said Boerner.
Besides the gender neutral bathrooms and the Chosen Names Policy, the school also has gender neutral housing.
“We aren’t necessarily advertising it or marketing in a way … It sounds like we can do a better way of marketing that,” Boerner said.
So how can the campus community join in to advocate for these causes?
Pride Alliance is among one of the many resources available to students to help advocate these issues.
According to their website, Pride Alliance is, “a group for support and celebration of the MOGII (marginalized orientations, gender identity and intersex) community on our campus.” Their purpose is to, “establish the Pride Alliance for the purpose of promoting unity and pride among the campus and community members of all romantic and sexual orientations, gender identities, and expressions; and for helping to educate, foster respect for, and to provide a safe, supportive and relaxed environment for all.”
The group advocates these rights, and have voiced for the small percentage of the MOGII community.
“I would just talk about it, like if there’s something that’s going on, just voice your opinion. Just keep doing what we are doing,” Stabell said.
Boerner said, “We have work to do. We always have work to do because this is constantly evolving and changing . . . I think [to] a lot of students and faculty, it’s just kind of second nature and they’re engaging and they’re able to implement these things as just everyday practice.”
“I think there’s always room for improvement. I think we have had a few prominent students who have helped us move in a positive direction and support for transgender and gender nonconforming students and people on campus,” he continued. “We have actually had an employee that has helped us and pushed this as well. That helped challenge our employee side of things as well which has been positive from my perspective,” he said.