In the United States, one of the hot-button political issues of the day―at least, one that some conservative state officials have tried to make into a wedge issue―is bathroom access for transgender people. Thanks to pervasive cultural anti-trans bias and public figures stoking harmful stereotypes both about what it means to be trans and why people want to use bathrooms that accurately correspond with their genders, it’s become a deeply sad state of affairs.
There’s one way to eliminate any argument about who should be using which bathroom: gender-neutral bathrooms, which make no distinction whether you’re female, male, gender-fluid, non-binary, you name it. And, at Samuel Robertson Technical Secondary School near Vancouver, Canada, some students reportedly decided to make that point in very simple terms. Here’s how they decorated the door to one of their gender-neutral bathrooms, as a sort of all-inclusive art project.
B.C. school on gender-neutral bathrooms: “Whatever. Just wash your hands” https://t.co/ZhMKI47Xsw pic.twitter.com/GfF9IwQhUs
— HuffPost Canada (@HuffPostCanada) November 6, 2016
The kids seem to be onto something. After all, as long as people are washing their hands―and by all means, wash your hands―should they really be all that concerned about who gets to use it? This reportedly isn’t the only gender-neutral bathroom at the school, but it’s the only one with the humorous hand-washing plea.
As HuffPost Canada detailed, the school’s gay-straight alliance is quite enthusiastic about the new signage. In particular, one young man named Aaron―who withheld his last name, as he’s still in the process of coming out as transgender in his personal life―says his fellow students feel pride in their school when they see the image:
They’re like, ‘Oh my gosh. That’s so cool!’ Like they’re so proud of our school for being able to come that far.
Also, for the record, Aaron said he always makes sure to wash his hands. Seriously everyone, take that to heart. A little cleanliness can go a long way.
