A coalition of LGBTQ+ advocacy and student groups yesterday called on universities to improve gender-neutral bathroom access, living accommodations and policies to foster more gender-friendly campus environments.
The groups, in collaboration with student organizations, held a news conference on International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia yesterday to share the results of their report on gender-related issues on university campuses.
The report focused on five areas: gender designations on school records, bathrooms, dormitories, curricula and campus atmosphere.
The seven participating schools were National Taiwan University (NTU), National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST), Soochow University, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Kaohsiung Medical University, National Sun Yat-sen University and National Tsing Hua University.
Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR) convener Victoria Hsu (許秀雯) said she hopes the report could help schools identify which areas need improvement to become more welcoming to transgender and gender nonconforming people.
The report found a serious shortage of bathrooms in terms of quantity and accessibility, with 45 gender-neutral options at the seven schools combined.
Individually, they ranged from having only one to 14, showing that many campus buildings lack accessible bathrooms, the groups said.
As many transgender and queer people fear seeing someone they know or encountering a hostile situation when using a toilet, it is common for them to avoid using public restrooms altogether, Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association director of policy advocacy Olivia Tsai (蔡瑩芝) said.
Plentiful and accessible toilets are important to ensuring the rights of gender nonconforming students and educators, Tsai added.
All seven universities require that the gender on a student’s university ID matches the gender printed on their national ID, although many university IDs no longer display gender, the report said.
National Tsing Hua University, in particular, has taken gender fields off many school documents, including the student ID and transcripts, it found.
NCKU has removed gender from all documents except for transcripts.
All schools should remove unnecessary gender fields from their forms, TAPCPR policy director Fang Chi (方綺) said, adding that when it is necessary, it should be unlinked from the national ID to avoid outing students.
In addition, many physical education courses overemphasize gender differences, which reinforces gender stereotypes rather than promote physical health, Taiwan Gender Equity Education Association secretary-general Hang Yi-chen (韓宜臻) said.
Students should be grouped by ability, not gender, Hang added.
None of the seven schools have set up gender-neutral dormitories, and instead enforce strict gender segregation rules “when convenient,” the report said.
Student experiences at NTU, NCKU and Soochow University show that the fewer gender checks a school conducts in its dorms, the more likely it is to accommodate transgender students, the report said.
In terms of overall campus atmosphere, the groups investigated eight metrics, including gender-related campus events, availability of counseling and presence of gender-oriented student groups.
They found there is generally not much interest in discussing gender issues on campus, with only NCKU and NPUST holding annual campuswide events on transgender issues.
The report was jointly written by the TAPCPR, Humanistic Education Foundation, Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association, Taiwan Gender Equity Education Association and the Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy.
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