All-Gender Restrooms

(Also known as Gender-Neutral Restrooms)

The creation of all-gender restrooms at SUNY Geneseo helps to increase access to spaces that do not ‘police’ or push gender-binary assumptions about students’ and staff gender expressions and/or identities as they are engaging basic needs. Ensuring SUNY Geneseo is inclusive to all individuals, regardless of gender identity strongly supports our diversity statement,

“Geneseo calls all members of our community to share responsibility for the ongoing work of continually recreating a sense of inclusion, belonging, and empowerment, so that together we will achieve our individual and collective aims, and experience the intellectual liberation that is at the heart of the educational enterprise.”

Creating access to safe restrooms for all where there are options, is important to fostering and supporting diversity at SUNY Geneseo.  

All-Gender Rather than Gender-Neutral

A quick explanation about use of the term 'All-Gender' rather than 'Gender-Neutral". The current trend in higher education is moving away from “gender-neutral” to using “all gender”, “gender inclusive”, or simply “inclusive” or “restroom” to label restrooms.  Though there are no specific studies regarding the name of these restrooms, “gender inclusive” is preferred as it indicates that the campus community recognizes that genders exist outside of the binary model (i.e. the idea that humans are only “male” or “female”), and anyone, no matter what their gender, may use the restroom. Further, “inclusive restroom” can indicate that the restroom is open to all people and all identities. This includes people of various (or no) genders, people with disabilities, families, etc.  

All-gender restrooms are commonly thought of as needed just for people who identify as transgender, but access is also an issue for individuals who are intersex, individuals with disabilities and their caregivers, and families (parents bringing children of the opposite gender into a restroom).  Increasing availability of single-stall restrooms also meets the accessibility regulations of the Americans with Disability Act (ADA). 

All Gender Restrooms Campus Map

View and download an All-Gender Restrooms Map, listing locations of these restrooms within buildings.