Student who organized SDSU ‘shit in’ harassed by a student in the men’s room and told to leave by staff

Back in October San Diego State University students from Trans* Action and Advocacy Student Coalition(TAASC) held a “Shit In on campus. The TAASC force placed five toilets in front of Hepner Hall and invited people to take selfies. They hoped to raise awareness of the need for safe spaces for trans people, but in the process, they also raised the ire of bigots.

TAASC Force member A.T. Furuya told The Daily Aztec last year:

“The point of this event is to raise awareness for trans* rights and transgender issues and we’re advocating for more gender-neutral bathrooms because oftentimes gender-specific bathrooms, which is the men’s and women’s bathrooms, are unsafe,” Furuya said gender-neutral bathrooms give students the opportunity to go to the bathroom without fear of being “gender policed,” which is when other people in the bathroom tell them, “You don’t belong in here.”

A.T. Furuya is alleging that he was verbally attacked in a campus men’s room by a student because of his transgender status. Furuya says that he was then told to leave the bathroom by a staff member who he asked for help.

“I was fixing my hair and someone started yelling and I didn’t know what they were yelling about,” A.T. Furuya told ABC10. “And he was leaning over and he was pointing at me and he was like, ‘you need to get out of here, you need to leave, you don’t belong here.’ And I was like, ‘Are you talking to me?’ and he was like, ‘yeah.’”

Furuya’s friend, Thomas Negron, Jr., was in the locker room Wednesday afternoon and heard the verbal attack.

“Instead of getting security, the ARC staff member walked over to the aggressor and started apologizing, and being all apologetic to the aggressor, and telling the aggressor they understood why they felt uncomfortable and then turned around and asked my friend to leave the locker room,” Negron said.

“That’s when I was like, ‘I don’t have to leave I can stay here. I don’t identify as a woman,’” Furuya said.

Later on Furuya and Negron called Campus police who said it was a ‘classroom argument’

According to the statement released by SDSU administration Furuya wasn’t discriminated against.

“The transgender student in the incident on January 14 was allowed to be in the locker room and was not asked to leave the locker room by university or ARC staff.”

Related

Facebook Comments