Students at California Polytechnic University aren’t worried about 2016 or about their state’s news-dominating drought. No, the big issue for these students is “poop equality.”
Students recently held a “shit-in” to fight for more gender neutral bathrooms on campus and to collectively say, “Get your shit together, Cal Poly.”
Members of Cal Poly’s Queer Student Union began circulating a petition last Tuesday asking that the university add “Gender Diversity” signs to existing “all-gender bathrooms” on campus. It also kicked off a three-day “shit-in, which meant that participating students could only use the gender neutral bathrooms on campus.
“Cal Poly has five reasonably accessible all gender bathrooms on campus. Put yourself in the shoes of a trans*/gender non-conforming student and take the pledge to use only all gender bathrooms,” the Facebook event stated.
According to Campus Reform, QSU members constructed a mock toilet that was accompanied by a large sign stating “we’ve got shit to deal with.” Passersby who were asked to sign the toilet in support and were told to “check their potty privilege.”
“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 group’s petition stated.
Despite this strong rhetoric and unique visual aids, the petition has only gotten 293 signatures out of the necessary 500.
Maybe the students feel like the 17 all-gender bathrooms that currently exist on Cal Poly’s campus are actually enough, despite the supposed “barriers” that this group believes are in places with them.
