Bathroom Anxiety Dozens of Genderqueer students, Only two bathrooms

By Eden Buell

In a school with 1,300 students, only having two bathrooms that align with who you are is a very isolating and invalidating experience. Everytime I try to use the bathroom, it’s like a slap in the face, where AHS is saying, “You don’t exist”. This is the experience I have to go through almost every single day when I have the decision to use the restroom.

Choosing between the Men’s and Women’s public bathrooms has been an issue for me. Mostly I end up resorting to Women’s because it feels like the safest option for me. Although, when I step into the women’s restroom, I feel anxious and out of place, since the bathroom that I am in doesn’t align with who I am. You may ask, “Eden, why don’t you just switch between the Men’s and Women’s?” Because I am not a Man or Woman, this may not be the case for all Nonbinary people but, it is for some. Besides, I definitely would not feel safe in a men’s restroom. I’m thankful that I am privileged enough to live in California where there are a fair amount of gender neutral bathrooms. However, I still run into this problem both inside and outside of school as a Nonbinary person. During my time at AHS, I have come across this difficult situation quite often.

Out of the multiple bathrooms we have, only two of them are gender neutral bathrooms. One is in the cafeteria which is usually locked, and the other is in the Assistant principal’s office. Most of the time, I wait until my last period of the day to use the bathroom, since there aren’t many people in the Women’s bathroom at that time. Sometimes, I get caught up in work for my last period and I have to wait until I get home. There are also times where I even reduce my intake of water or any other liquid because I know I would have to use the bathroom later. During my Junior year, I used the Gender neutral bathroom in the AP office since I felt comfortable doing so, but now, I’m not so comfortable going there because I do not know the new APs very well. Plus, whenever I used the bathroom in the AP office I would have to ask someone to unlock the door to the restroom, which overall was somewhat tedious, and I’ll admit, a little uncomfortable. Many people who are like me struggle with not feeling comfortable or safe when just trying to use the bathroom almost daily. We are even attacked or harassed for using the restroom. I hear a lot of speculation around gender neutral bathrooms, but nothing ever seems to be done. Everyone deserves the right to be able to use the bathroom that they are most comfortable with. Having multiple accessible gender neutral bathrooms at AHS is important because they lessen the fear of harassment, it provides a safe private place for transgender, nonbinary, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming students, and they are useful for disabled students who may need assistance. I would like for the San Lorenzo Unified School District to implement more gender neutral bathrooms on their campuses. A good example of a gender neutral bathroom would be a bathroom with multiple ceilingto-floor stalls that would give those using the restroom privacy and safety. I think the best place to put gender neutral bathrooms would be in the breeze-way and possibly some of the restrooms in the quad. If you can think of more reasonable places to put them, please do so. This may not be of use to me now since I will be graduating this year, but I hope for future generations of students, that they won’t have to deal with this issue anymore.