Could gender neutral bathrooms be in Georgetown’s future? A group of students working with the LGBTQ Center certainly thinks so.

On November 3rd, the group will be scouring campus looking for possible locations for gender neutral bathrooms.  The event’s Facebook description describes the need for trans-friendly accommodations thusly:

Our campus should be accessible and welcoming to all members of our community. There are and will be trans students, faculty, and staff on our campus. Trans issues have historically been marginalized, and conversations on change have been moving slowly toward implementation. GU has historically handled these issues on a person by person bases.

Gender Neutral Bathrooms are an important part of making Georgetown’s campus more trans inclusive and accessible. They are the most straight-forward issue to address (but in no way simple to implement) …

What are gender neutral bathrooms you may ask and why? The drive to ask for this comes from observing violence, harassment, and intimidation that is directed at some people routinely — transgender people especially — when they enter public facilities to undertake a basic human function. Therefore these are bathrooms that can by used by someone with any gender.

According to the Facebook event, participants will meet at the LGBTQ Center and then break off into groups to explore campus buildings.  According to the description, this is just the beginning of the campaign to create gender neutral bathrooms at Georgetown, on the main campus, as well as at the medical and law centers.

Photo by Flickr user Laughing Squid, used under a Creative Commons license.

Graffiti artists have taken over part of the men’s restroom on Lauinger’s fourth floor. It isn’t just “[Roommate's name] is dynamite in the sack” and a phone number, though. Instead, they pun with grout.

On the wall above the urinal a series of phrases have had words replaced with “grout,” including “Grout of Africa”, “Twist and grout”, “The Grout Gatsby”, and “Brokeback Groutain,” which doesn’t seem that clever.

The last entry violates what seems to be a rule of grout theory–it has to be funny. Alexander the Grout works, so does the Grout Depression, but Groutshington, D.C. doesn’t. Equally disappointing is the scrawled graffito “God saves.” Sure, it’s a Jesuit school, but why ruin the fun, anonymous proselytizer?

Graffiti isn’t new, and neither are puns. It’s compelling, though, to imagine the Georgetown students who not only take pens into the bathroom, but choke down urinal cake odor long enough to think of a joke and write it on the bricks.

Posted by Will Sommer