Gender Neutral Bathrooms at CKM

The LGBTQ+ community has long been strong at McClatchy, but this year, Rainbow Coalition is impacting McClatchy in a different way. Rainbow Coalition, with the help of Student Union, has worked for gender neutral bathrooms at McClatchy to replace some of the single stall staff bathrooms.
The McClatchy administration, along with the Sacramento Unified School District, were already making strides to convert some of the many bathrooms on campus into ones labelled gender neutral before students got involved. Little conversion is actually necessary, apart from a change in the signs outside the restrooms, and keeping the bathrooms unlocked so access is unrestricted.
Junior Tommy Yoder has taken an active role in ensuring that the bathrooms are made available to students. “I started suggesting gender neutral bathrooms to Student Union and talking to Mr. Lambert and the Rainbow Coalition more this year because it’s something that Rainbow Coalition has been working toward for a long time now. And now that the legislation is on our side, we figure that it was about time that we got the school up to date.”
Talk of gender neutral bathrooms at McClatchy follows Governor Jerry Brown’s approval of legislation in late September that requires all public single-occupancy restrooms in California to be considered “gender neutral” with proper signs by March 1st, 2017. After this date, health inspectors will be permitted to check that the correct gender neutral signs are displayed.
While the deadline for the proper gender neutral signage isn’t until 2017, McClatchy is not wasting time on the issue. In a school as diverse as McClatchy, having the proper restrooms to accommodate all students is absolutely critical.
“Adding gender neutral bathrooms to our school is definitely a huge step forward for gender variant youth. We already have improved a small amount by allowing these students to use a staff bathroom of their choice, but to do this, students still have to find a hall monitor and explain to them their situation. This still creates an uncomfortable environment for students because not everyone wants to come out to a staff member every time they need to use a restroom,” Senior and Rainbow Coalition President Andy Summerhays explained.
“Gender neutral bathrooms will provide a safe space for gender variant students to use the restroom without having to choose between the two most common genders,” Andy continued.
The gender neutral signs have yet to be put up at McClatchy, but students can expect them sometime this year.