Santa Monica College's (SMC) Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) and Pride Center want students to feel welcomed and comfortable on campus, and inclusive restrooms can make that happen.

Members from the Santa Monica College (SMC) Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) club have advocated for the proposal to bring more multiple-stall all-gender restrooms to campus, which they presented to school officials across various meetings over the 2021-2022 school year. Two SMC faculty members leading this effort are Dr. Steph Anderson, Assistant Professor of Psychology, and Dr. Nathaniel Donahue, Art History Professor. Anderson is the lead of the Pride Center, the campus organization committed to protecting and prioritizing LGBTQ+ students.

The proposal suggests converting 23 first floor gender specific restrooms into all-gender restrooms with each facility having an all-gender sign, images showing the type of plumbing in each restroom, and directions to gender segregated restrooms. This would be an estimated one-time cost of $2,900 dollars from the school. SMC would still have 39 gender segregated restrooms, meaning . “By using the term all–gender, it includes anyone that might want to use the restroom. We were very intentional in using that term,” GSA President and nursing student Catherine Lee said.

SMC currently has four public multiple-stall all–gender restrooms. One restroom is located on the third floor of the Student Services Center, one in Health Services, and two in the Core Performance Center. In addition, there are eight single occupancy all-gender restrooms on the main campus that require a staff key.

“One of my friends that is trans told me he has to calculate how much water he drinks throughout the day to avoid going to the restroom on campus,” Lee said. “That is just sad.”

Both Dr. Anderson and Lee believe that some of the resistance from school officials to change these restrooms is because of the claim of cis-gender women experiencing violence in all-gender restrooms. “What we know empirically is that even at locations that have created and sought all-gender restrooms, there is no increase violence against cis-women,” Dr. Anderson said. “Black and Latina transgender women are more likely to encounter violence in restrooms.”

Recently, during a SMC District Planning Action Committee meeting on March 23, board members raised concerns over cost, implementation, and how changes with all-gender bathrooms would affect SMC's current standing with California Plumbing Code.

Because of the concerns voiced by the committee members, Dr. Anderson and Dr. Donahue postponed their presentation to the Board of Trustees meeting which they had originally scheduled for April 5. Now, Dr. Anderson and Dr. Donahue will present the proposal to the SMC Board of Trustees on May 3.

“The Pride Center and GSA really prides themselves on intersectionality. We want all your identities to feel welcome and celebrated. These restrooms are one step towards that,” Lee said. She encourages students to sign the Change.org petition she made to rally support for the all-gender restrooms on campus.

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