A mock toilet in the middle of the campus.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: California Polytechnic University’s Queer Student Union recently masterminded a three-day “shit-in” during which students preached gender diversity and taught their peers about gender neutral bathrooms, according to a report by Campus Reform.
“Put yourself in the shoes of a trans*/gender non-conforming student and take the pledge to use only all gender bathrooms,” states the group’s Facebook page.
QSU students constructed a mock toilet for the three-day event, which began on Tuesday, and placed it in the middle of campus with a sign that stated, “We’ve got shit to deal with.”
A petition that was launched in conjunction with the shit-in claims the public university in San Luis Obispo, California currently has 17 all-gender bathrooms, but only five are “reasonably accessible, leaving non-cisgender students with a paltry amount of options when it comes to using the bathroom.”
“Gendered bathrooms pose a threat to the emotional and physical well-being of this demographic, and often force awkward and uncomfortable encounters for non-cisgender identifying students,” the petition further explains.
QSU co-president Matt Klepfer credited a shit-in hosted by San Diego State University students last fall for inspiring the demonstration at Cal Poly.
“The overall reception from the student body has been wonderful,” Klepfer told Campus Reform. “We feel that we educated a lot of people on the issue of the lack of all gender restrooms on campus, and those who were aware of the issue were glad to see something was being done to address the issue.
However, not all members of the student body were receptive to the QSU’s methods.
“For many students, myself included, it’s hard to take something like a ‘shit-in’ very seriously,” said Cal Poly senior Domenic Hjerpe. “Cal Poly’s campus is already pretty extremely inclusive.”
Breitbart reported that West Hollywood passed a law earlier this year requiring all single-stall bathrooms to replace gender-specific signs with gender-neutral signs, and San Diego Airport recently designated 12 of its restrooms as gender-neutral.