Tonight’s meeting of TCDSU Council has voted to adopt a motion mandating that the union provide gender neutral bathrooms in every building in college, as well as to ensure that union events are held in venues where there are gender neutral bathrooms where feasible.
The motion was proposed by TCDSU LGBT Officer, Sean O’Carroll. In his proposal, he noted that gender neutral bathrooms were “important” in providing a safe and comfortable college environment for all students.”
Speaking at the meeting, O’Carroll stressed the importance of Gender Neutral bathrooms for trans students: “Having gender neutral bathrooms available is a very important step in making students feel comfortable and respected in the college community.” He continued that currently, the system “denies people having a safe comfortable space”, and could leave them open to “gender policing” every time they use the bathroom.
The motion passed with overwhelming consensus, with the assembled council breaking into applause as the result was noted.
In September, gender neutral bathrooms became available for use in the Arts Block. This was the result of a year long process, initiated by former TCDSU Welfare Officer, Conor Clancy, who proposed the measure before Trinity Equality Committee. Since then TCDSU and College have been working together to provide more for students. Speaking to The University Times at the time, current Welfare Officer, Aoibhinn Loughlin remarked that they had focussed particularly on the Arts Block because of the lack of gender neutral bathrooms in that building.
She further noted that the process had been relatively pain-free in terms of implementation: “For any bathroom that’s stand alone, or could become gender-neutral, we have changed the signage, so it’s really just been ordering the signage.”
She further noted that college authorities had been “very supportive” of the measures.
Trinity’s Gender Identity and Expression policy, introduced in June of 2014, states that “it is not acceptable to restrict a trans person to use disabled toilets or other unisex facilities”, and describes it as “good practice” for Trinity to provide “non-gender specific facilities where possible”. The policy outlines Trinity’s plans to be inclusive of all students, regardless of gender identity, and emphasises Trinity’s “formal commitment to recognise and support an individual’s gender identity and gender expression”.
Writing in The University Times in June, then-incoming TCDSU LGBT Rights Officer, Sean O’Carroll, emphasised that “gender-neutral bathrooms are not available in every college building and sometimes not available at all at events run by Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) events”.
Gender-neutral bathrooms have been a recurring issue in TCDSU elections over the past number of years, with many candidates promising to introduce them across campus.
In November the option for transgender, non-binary and intersex students to change their name and gender on College records without obtaining official documentation following the launch of a new service by Trinity’s Academic Registry. The move marks continuing efforts by college to be more inclusive of trans students.
