Jonah Heisler, a senior at Lakeland University, is advocating for all-neutral bathrooms for his honors project in the Fall of 2023. When Heisler first stepped foot at Lakeland University in the Fallof 2021, he noticed that there was something missing on campus.
“I asked about what all-gender bathrooms we had, and I couldn’t get a straight answer,” Heisler stated. “I attempted to find them to no avail; from this, I knew that I needed to do something to fix this.”
All-gender (also called gender-neutral) bathrooms are bathrooms that anybody can go into no matter their gender expression or identity. These bathrooms can provide people with comfort and safety that they may not feel going into gender specific bathrooms. They also are affirming, as they do not put pressure on an individual to force themself into a male or female bathroom.
“With the rise of bathroom bills and anti-trans rhetoric, bathrooms have become a battleground of sorts, making many gender diverse people feel unsafe,” Heisler stated. “All-gender bathrooms are a safe, non-gendered space, in which everyone belongs, and no questioning gazes are needed.
Being a part of the LGBTQ+ community, Heisler made it his mission to advocate for the need for these bathrooms and the benefits they provide to the community.
“My mission is to make students and employees of our Plymouth campus aware of what all-gender bathrooms are, comfortable with the idea of them, and to plant the seeds for future change,” Heisler stated.
Heisler is very close to completing this mission as he is nearing the end of the semester. So far, Heisler has sent out a survey, held a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging meeting, and will post flyers detailing all-gender bathrooms across campus.
When it comes to instituting the bathrooms, he has begun pushing for the change of signage of a few single-stalled bathrooms that are already on campus. In the long term, his goal is to have all-gender bathrooms in every building on campus.
This journey began in Heisler’s introduction to honors class, where he first came up with the idea. He then continued developing his ideas in his directed readings with school chaplain Julie Mavity-Maddalena. These readings helped him with his final step before his project began, which was developing a proposal.
Once his proposal got approved by the honors committee, he then had to get IRB (Institutional Review Board) approval to send out his survey. He got the approval, and sent out the survey earlier this semester. The purpose of the survey is to examine the “existing knowledge about all-gender bathrooms, as well as support for their inclusion across campus.”
He then met with President Beth Borgen to discuss the changing of the signage of the bathrooms and met with David Simon, Vice President for Campus Life, to talk about directory for all-gender bathrooms and future steps.
As he reflects on his journey, Heisler wants to give a big thanks to Dr. Julie Mavity-Maddelena, Troy Seehafer, Dr. Alan Mock, David Gallianetti, Dr. Paul White, Dr. Aimee Burns, Flossie Siebert, Dr. Beth Borgen and David Simon. All of these people have helped him in the process of completing his project.
He has made tremendous progress in completing his mission, but he also understands that he still has a lot of work to do that he is planning to continue in his journey outside of Lakeland.
“I will continue my project long after I graduate,” Heisler stated. “It is a part of the struggles for equality that the LGBTQ+ community continues to fight for, and I will always continue that fight. I hope to see this change be made at Lakeland, and I’m sure I’ll find ways to continue advocating it after graduation, too.”