Being told you’re in the wrong bathroom can be awkward or embarrassing when it’s an unfortunate mistake.
But for transgender people, all too used to others not respecting or understanding their identity, it can be a devastating experience.
Despite the tide of LGBTIQ-related reform that has swept through developed nations in the last decade, many barriers to everyday life remain, particularly for people who identify as transgender, intersex or gender diverse.
Gender segregated public bathrooms constitute one such barrier, often representing a space where transgender people feel uncomfortable and scrutinised.
This issue was highlighted recently at Sydney University, after a campaign to educate people about gender stereotyping in bathrooms was met with hostility from some students.
Charlie O’Grady, a transgender student at Sydney University, said he regularly felt unsafe in bathrooms.
"I've been stared at, I've been made to feel unwelcome, and sometimes I’ve felt that I couldn’t use the bathroom at all," he said.
Unisex or "gender neutral" bathrooms, open to anybody, have been posited by some LGBTIQ advocates as a way of making public spaces more inclusive for transgender people.
Although the issue as a whole has received a fraction of the attention garnered by more popular LGTBIQ issues like gay marriage, the idea has been embraced by some institutions overseas.
Earlier this year, a law was introduced in the US city of Philadelphia requiring all new or renovated city buildings to include a gender neutral bathroom.
Several US universities have also introduced gender neutral bathrooms, stating explicitly that the changes were made in order to better support students who identify as transgender.
The changes in the US may be relatively slow and scattered, but in Australia, the issue has failed to gain traction.
Discussion of the issue briefly flared earlier this year when the Victorian Student Representative Council lobbied the Victorian government on the inclusion of gender neutral bathrooms in high schools.
And now, a recent campaign run by the Queer Department of the National Union of Students has received a mixed reaction at Sydney University.
National Queer Officers Cat Rose and Hiba Casablanca distributed stickers with slogans such as “I’m here to pee, not to be gender stereotyped,” to over 20 Australian universities, with the aim of educating people about why they shouldn’t assume somebody is in the wrong bathroom.
But at Sydney University, a stone’s throw from gay-friendly Newtown in the inner west, many of the stickers were removed or destroyed.
A sticker from the campaign. (Lane Sainty)
A sticker from the campaign.
Sydney University Queer Officer Eleanor Barz said it was "hard to say" whether the vandalised stickers were the result of a general sentiment among students or a targeted campaign.
"It could be that there is one very dedicated band of transphobic students who are damaging the stickers, and that most people don't mind them being there," she said.
An article in support of the campaign, published by Sydney University newspaper Honi Soit, provoked a lengthy argument about the merits of gender neutral bathrooms on Facebook.
Many of the comments indicated not only a reluctance to adopt gender neutral bathrooms, but also a general lack of understanding towards transgender people, as well as concerns about cisgender men entering women’s spaces.
"A lot of ignorance and anxiety surrounds the issue," Ms Barz said.
Despite the controversy, Charlie O'Grady said the Sydney University campus is a friendlier place than most.
"I think the culture here is definitely less violent and insidious than in other places. The university is one of the more inclusive places I've been," he said.
"But there is still stereotyping and there is still a tendency, whether intentional or not, to make people feel unwelcome when they’re just trying to go about their day-to-day life."
According to Mr O'Grady, the opposition to gender neutral bathrooms could be rooted in an Australian reluctance to treat any group as special.
"I think it ties in with the Australian idea of a 'fair go', in that people see it as a group receiving special treatment. But it's obviously not," he said.
The issue has generated much controversy within the Sydney University community, and indeed, wherever it has surfaced.
But to those in favour, like Mr O'Grady, the idea is anything but radical.
"It’s just providing people with accessibility for everyday needs."
