With SB-104 having gone into effect February 25, the Ohio transgender community is facing quite a bit of heat from the government. Here is how some of Sinclair’s students feel about being in the same bathroom as a transgender person and the bill itself:
Leiley King – Major: Biology
“[My co-worker] was asking me about like how it was affecting me as a non-binary person, and I was like, ‘here at Sinclair, I only know of one gender neutral bathroom, and it’s in the basement [of Building 10]’. I remember my first semester here, I would run; a five minute bathroom break, I would run all the way there and all the way back just because I wanted to use the gender neutral bathroom.”
“That’s the only one I knew of specifically at that time, so I always just opted for like, ‘fine I’ll just use whatever bathroom is closest.’ Plus I present very femininely and so like it’s not like it is going to affect me in the way that it will affect other people who maybe are just starting their transition or like can’t pass as well as someone like me.”
“I can pass as a woman. It makes me just really upset, it makes me so sad. He [my co-worker] said ‘I have a trans cousin and he’s in the military and he just got kicked out.”
“I know Wright State, they changed all of their gender neutral bathrooms into family stalls and I’m like what does that do for anybody? I don’t understand the logic behind it and I don’t think I want to understand because it’s so far out. I’m so done trying to understand oppressive people y’know? like it’s not my job to do it, my job is to just highlight why you shouldn’t understand it and be upset about why you don’t understand it.” King said.
D. Biggs – Major: Mechanical Engineering
“I feel like if you can look at somebody and be like ‘they should go in this bathroom or they should go in that bathroom. The fact that they’re trans shouldn’t come into play, because my issue is that they want me in the same bathroom as, like, a little girl.”
“She’s gonna get confused, her parents are gonna be concerned because they’re going to see a man in a women’s restroom, that’s gonna be a safety issue. Compared to putting me in the mens restroom, then there’s not gonna be an issue there.”
“Well the whole reason I started using the men’s restroom was because I went to the women’s restroom and I had security called on me and I had to be escorted out even though I still had my ID that had an F [female gender marker] at that time, I was making people uncomfortable.”
“If people have to call security because they think a man is in the women’s restroom? That’s an issue, that’s why I started using the mens.” Biggs said.
“But now they’re wanting- they passed that thing in Ohio where they say all federally funded schools, you have to use the ‘correct restroom’. I’m not gonna do that, I’m gonna get security called on me, I’m gonna get harassed, probably gonna get beat up at some point, I’m not doing that. Whereas I’ve used the mens restroom, zero issue.”
Alexis Robinson – Major: Computer Information Systems
“I do not care about anyone coming into the bathroom as long as they do not mess with me and that goes for women, that goes for men, that goes for transgender women, that goes for transgender men, as long as they respect my boundaries.”
“As far as the bill goes, I think it’s stupid. I think it’s a lot of people who aren’t secure in themselves and who are problematic themselves that have a problem with people who are different.” Robinson said.
Atticus Fries, Copy Editor