Even if it only benefits one student it's worth the fight

The collective student officers who make up LUSU’s Council last week voted to promote the inclusion of gender neutral toilets in all future buildings and refurbishments. This simple agreement has taken more than a year to reach. It was attempted last summer and was shot down amid various misconstructions, ranging from a prudish “wouldn’t they be really messy” to the outlandish “don’t people have sex in them”.

The extra year hasn’t caused too many set backs, and it was long enough to convince officers that neither of these points, or those in between, is the case. And it’s better to take it forward with the whole of the Union behind rather than having to drag some along by their heels.

Outside of the meeting there were still some worryingly inward looking grumbles over how necessary they really are, a classic case of “I can’t understand why someone would have a problem with the status quo so there can’t really be a problem”. The grumblers have presumably completely missed the point of a union, student or not. Even if just one student on campus feels uncomfortable or disadvantaged by the current set up then their Students’ Union should be standing up for them, arguing on their behalf.

At a time when national equality policy is becoming more regressive, students’ unions everywhere need to make sure they’re becoming more progressive: equipping people with the tools and confidence they need to combat ignorance and discrimination in the wider world. We won’t see gender neautral toilets springing up over night, at Lancaster or anywhere else, but this move does mean our university will be more inclusive in the future, which can only be a good thing.

Unfortunately, we have lost track of who originally wrote this article, as it did not have any author information..

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