Students, faculty and staff members have the option to use one of CSULB’s many gender-neutral restrooms. Currently there are over 50 gender-neutral restrooms on campus.
Gender-neutral restrooms are especially beneficial to the transgender community.
They can help lessen the anxiety that comes with using gendered bathrooms, according to the Metro Trans Umbrella Group.
Forcing people to choose between identifying as either male or female in order to use a public restroom can lead to embarrassment, misgendering and even harassment. Giving transgender and gender non-conforming people the option to use a gender-neutral restroom allows them to feel safer on campus.
“It’s only fair that everybody has access to a restroom without fear of outing, bullying, or stigmatization,” California State Sen. Josh Newman said in an interview with CNN, recently sponsored a law that requires all-gender restrooms in all K-12 schools by 2026.
The gender neutral restrooms at CSULB vary from single-stall restrooms to restrooms made up of rows of many stalls with shared mirrors, sinks and hand dryers.
The Horn Center is home to a gender neutral restroom that closely resembles an average gender-specific public restroom, with a long row of stalls that individually lock.
The stalls differ from other public restrooms because the doors start at the floor and end at the ceiling, leaving no gaps. This small yet effective detail ensures that students feel safe and comfortable using the restroom.
The majority of gender neutral restrooms on campus are single stalls. This is in correspondence with the California state law, signed into effect in 2017, that requires all single-user restrooms to be considered a gender neutral restroom.
This law required all public facilities to switch any single-stall restrooms labeled as “men’s” or “women’s” to “all-gender” or “gender-neutral”.
Single-stall restrooms are completely separated from the women’s restroom and the men’s restroom. They are often located near the other restrooms, sometimes just down the hall.
Each single-stall restroom includes everything that a normal restroom stall would, except with an added sink and hand dryer.
These restrooms are also one of the most accessible options for students with disabilities, as they are larger and have grab bars on the wall.
More information on services and resources offered to LGBTQ+ students at CSULB can also be found on the faculty center page. A detailed map of every one of these restrooms can be found on the school’s website.