For International Anti-Street Harassment Week, a few student groups at George Washington University in Washington, DC, worked with the DC Trans Coalition to create fliers to post in public restrooms about the harassment most transgender individuals face there.
The campus would not let them. Via the DCist:
“The GW Graduate Feminists has been attempting to post signs in bathrooms around campus warning against the harassment transgender people often report experiencing when using gender-specific restrooms. But to the group’s consternation, campus officials have said fliers are not permitted to be mounted in the bathrooms inside the Marvin Center, GWU’s student center at 21st and I streets NW.
Elizabeth Owens, a member of the Graduate Feminists, told DCist that given the subject matter, it would have made sense for administrators to bend the rules and allow signs warning against violence in restrooms to be mounted inside restrooms. Instead, according to an email from a university employee that was forwarded to DCist, fliers are only allowed near the Marvin Center’s elevator banks.
But given recent violent crimes around D.C. in which transgender people have been assaulted and killed, Owens feels that there ought not to be such a limitation on where precaution can be advised.
“In the context of the violence that is going on in the D.C. area and a perception that trans issues are not being highlighted—even within the LGBT community—we saw a need to bring offer some resources,” she said in a phone interview.
Owens’ fliers implore bathroom visitors to give transgender people as much privacy as they would expect from themselves. “Let transgender folk pee in the restrooms we feel safest in,” some of the notices read. The fliers also cite a 2009 survey taken by the D.C. Trans Coalition reporting that 70 percent of transgender people interviewed reported being either harassed or assaulted while using a gender-specific bathroom. These trends, the Trans Coalition’s report said, can lead to a withdrawal from public life, deeply affecting a person’s education, employment and health.”
The GWU campus paper published an article about the issue too.
I received my master’s degree from GWU and I’m disappointed they wouldn’t let the students post the fliers. While Anti-Street Harassment Week is coming to a close, that doesn’t mean it’s time to stop bringing attention to public harassment/street harassment. Here are four of the fliers they made, feel free to download them and post them wherever you can.
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