On March 20, a university official informed Pitt's Anti-Discriminatory Policies Committee that transgender students and faculty must use bathroom facilities that match the gender on their birth certificate rather than the gender with which they identify.

A lot of people were really shocked that they had taken such a harsh position. It was just dropped on us like a bomb. --Jane Feuer, chair of the Anti-Discriminatory Policies Committee (ADPC)

Faculty, staff, and students have condemned this as a potentially harmful change that violates the universities own anti-discrimination policy.Previous to this, the school had no fixed policy but handled concerns on a case by case basis. Last year at the Pitt-Johnstown campus, a transman student was expelled for using the men's locker room. Theresponded by passing a resolution in February charging that the expulsion was an act of discrimination. The committee stated that transgender students should be allowed to use the bathroom to match the gender with which they identify and bringing up the need for a formal policy.

This is what they got, courtesy of the university's HR and legal departments.



Transgender people...are prohibited from using bathroom facilities of the gender they identify with, unless they furnish a birth certificate matching that sex.

Pitt's non-discrimination policy, as applied to restrooms, means that a student or faculty member can use the bathroom of "his or her declared gender identity after he or she has obtained a birth certificate designating the declared gender.

Rayden Sorock, a local advocate for transgender rights, says the policy is problematic for several reasons. For starters, changing the gender on a birth certificate requires sex-reassignment surgery, which is very costly and not always desired by transgendered people. "[The policy] assumes that people want to change their bodies, and that they can afford to," says Sorock.

University officials are ducking being questioned about this policy. Robert Hill, Pitt's vice chancellor of public affairs, emailed a statement thatThen he stated that this was an articulation of the long-standing practice…which it was not.It is also the case that some states will not change the birth certificate even after surgery.

The Pitt University Senate is doing what such bodies do: they are forming a committee.

Lombardi is declining to use the men's bathroom.



For my own safety. I have to continue to use the same facilities. --Emilia Lombardi

Robert Hill's contact information:412-624-8891Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs430 Craig Hallhillr@pitt.edu

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As an example of what can happen when a transperson uses a restroom, let me direct you to another story.

Now Iceland is usually considered an enlightened place. People think that since same-sex marriages are covered by the same law as heterosexual marriages…and even the head of state is a married lesbian...that the situation is good for GLBT people. Not always so.

Last weekend three men decided they disapproved of a transman using a men's room at a nightclub.

The victim's friend, Hafþór Loki Theodórsson, also a transman, reports what followed. If you read Icelandic, Thor's Thunderblog is here. I do not read Icelandic.



They beat him until he managed to escape. He entered a taxi and explained what had happened and was then told by the bloody driver that it is insane to be a ‘trannie’.

This week, Samtökin 78, the National Queer Organization, called for tolerance and support for transgender individuals. At the same time they urged Alþingi, the Icelandic parliament, to complete legal amendments to improve their situation in society. “Like the situation is today, it is not illegal to deny me work or housing. My sexual identity is not protected by Icelandic law. Anyone can discriminate against me and talk about me anyway they like and there is nothing I can do about it,” Hafþór said of his legal position.

The victim is not planning to sue…in order to maintain the privacy of himself and his family.Every time the bathroom issue arises…

…someone inevitably says that this is not the issue transpeople should be fighting. I beg to differ. If we cannot use public restrooms, we are pretty much excluded from engaging in public life.

How many times between when we leave home and we return do we use a restroom, on average, I wonder?