Are public restrooms safe for everyone? According to the Restroom Revolution group, the answer is no.

On Dec. 4, a group of University of Massachusetts students gathered to discuss their plans and ideas for the fate of UMass bathrooms. The transgender community is a supporter of this project. A transgendered individual is a person whose assigned gender at birth does not accurately or completely represent their gender identity. They may or may not opt to have surgery.

“There is a safety concern for people who don’t fit gender norms,” said Ed Kammerer, 23, a UMass senior. “We need to push that this is a safety issue.”

So what makes a bathroom safe in the opinion of the transgender community? A gender-neutral bathroom.

“Since we do not fit either of the two categories, we are forced to choose,” said A.J. Crittendon, 21, a UMass senior. “In either choice, we are often subjecting ourselves to severe discomfort, verbal and physical harassment, and a general fear of who we will encounter and what they will say or do based on their assumptions of our identities.”

These sentiments are not echoed throughout the UMass community. The Republican Club leads the argument against it.

“What the Republican Club sees it as is a joke,” said David Peterson, 20, an environmental design major. “A lot of people think it’s a safety issue. I’m not sure that it is.”

According to Mitch Boucher, 33, a UMass graduate student, the mission of the Restroom Revolution is to advocate for safe, accessible neutral bathrooms. Parents with small children of the opposite sex and disabled people would benefit as well as transgendered people, he said.

“It’s not about transgendered people using the bathrooms,” said Melissa Drysdale, 20, a UMass junior. “I think it’s silly to question someone’s right to pee in a certain place.”

Officially, the Restroom Revolution is asking for at least one bathroom with showers included per residence hall as gender-neutral or unisex. In buildings with more than four floors, they want a gender-neutral bathroom on every third floor.

In addition to their formal proposal, the group is asking that single sex bathrooms be designated ‘Public Restrooms’ as opposed to men/women.

“There are a lot of single stall bathrooms with a man and a woman pictured on them throughout the UMass campus,” said Andrew Schiffer, 21, a UMass junior. “Just change the name to ‘Public Restroom.’ That doesn’t endanger anyone. No one gets their bathroom taken away.”

“Last year the administration told us it cost too much to change the signs on the bathrooms,” Crittendon said.

Members of the Republican Club don’t see the ‘Public Restroom’ designation as a problem.

“If it’s a single stall bathroom, that fine,” said Andy Kemmerer, 20, a Sports Management major. “I think if you have multiple stalls it’s a bad thing.”

“It concentrates the hate,” said Peterson. “If a homophobe wants to beat someone up, they know exactly where to go.”

According to Kammerer, other colleges and universities such as Hampshire College already have gender-neutral facilities.

The group stresses that by creating gender-neutral facilities, they don’t plan on building new bathrooms or taking away all single sex bathrooms.

“We’re not trying to take bathrooms away,” Kemmerer said. “We don’t want a separate transgender bathroom. Bathrooms are for everyone.”

The Student Government Association and Graduate Student Senate have both voted to support creating gender-neutral bathrooms. The motion passed in the SGA by a vote of 34-12.

“Out of the 12 against the motion, six were in the Republican Club,” said Peterson.

“The University needs to be educated about transgender issues, not just in bathrooms,” Kammerer said.

Now the Restroom Revolution needs the support of the administration.

“The Restroom Revolution, they’ll get some signs on their petitions. The University will look it over and ignore it,” Kemmerer said. “I’d be very surprised if anything came of it.”

According to the Restroom Revolution, one of the major concerns seems to be the cost.

“A lot of people seem to think it’s going to cost a lot of money because of the budget cuts.” Crittendon said. “They think we want new bathrooms to be built. But the only cost is changing the signs on the current bathrooms.”

“It’s got to cost something,” Peterson said. “They’re going to have to do it right.”

Another of the major concerns is that putting men and women in the same bathroom is a bad idea.

“The assumption is that if you put people of the opposite sex in the same bathroom, then they will fornicate,” Boucher said.

“Well, I’d like to know where all the lesbian sex is in the women’s room,” said Drysdale.

“If you’re in a dorm with showers and stuff and there’s this guy just standing there and checking you, by normal means it’s sexual harassment, but he’s entitled to be there if it’s his bathroom too,” said Kemmerer.

“My dad was here in the 70’s with unisex bathrooms and he said it worked,” said Peterson. “They changed it to gender specific bathrooms. There’s probably a reason for that.”

During the three days that the Restroom Revolution had a table in the Campus Center, some of the representatives were met with hostility and more often, confusion, according to the group members.

“Some people are just trying to figure out what we’re doing,” said Mellissa Kozik, 21, a UMass senior. “Some people made the effort to come over and understand.”

“I think it’s not my responsibility to justify my involvement. People don’t need to know my history,” Drysdale said. “I don’t think it’s relevant at all.”

So, how big a deal is this? How many transgendered people actually are there?

“It’s ridiculous. There’s probably like four on campus,” Peterson said.

“Our main problem is people don’t know what we’re about. They don’t know what we stand for,” said Boucher. “What really needs to happen is for people to know who we are and what we’re doing here.”

The future of University restrooms is still unclear. According to Crittendon, administration is looking into the “legal parameters of a gender neutral bathroom and see if there is any leniency in the plumbing code.” Changing the assignment of already created bathrooms to gender neutral could be against code, depending if they can be counted as a part of the set number of fixtures in each building or not.

Crittendon said that administration will get back to the Restroom Revolution in January.