The present study investigates perceptions toward inclusive restrooms after implementation on a college campus. The campus implemented 'all-gender restrooms' to reduce restroom-related stress and belonging threats faced by gender-diverse students. Signs labeled 'all-gender' were added to the restroom doors along with notes explaining that the…

Transgender college students report higher rates of discrimination in gendered restrooms than do their cisgender peers. It is critical to understand factors that promote greater acceptance of transgender students using restrooms that align with their gender identity. The current experiment examined the impact of perceived social norms on both…

Objective: Mental health concerns of college students are on the rise, prompting a need for communication campaigns to address ways to assist students. The current campaign utilized weekly bathroom stall messaging to address five key themes developed by a university's mental wellness task force. Participants: Undergraduate students at a large…

Transgender and gender non-conforming (trans*) students are growing in visibility and advocacy in the higher education landscape, yet students must navigate a collegiate environment not historically structured to meet their needs (Herman et al., 2022; Nicolazzo, 2017). This mixed-methods research study examined the higher education institutional…

School toilets, globally and historically, have been problematic as places of shame and bullying, often providing pupils with inadequate facilities. This participatory student research project sought to develop political agency with youth researchers, equipping them with research skills to develop a project about school toilets, and to help…

Organization of spaces in schools often revolves around gender and sexuality. For example, it has been reported that restrooms and locker rooms are the most heteronormative and heterosexist spaces within schools. Particularly within these spaces, hegemonic heterosexual masculinity/femininity is institutionalized, not only in the practices and…

School-based sports and physical education play an important role in the development of youth (Jones, Edwards, et al., 2017), but participation in athletics is unequal for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth compared to their straight/cisgender peers [Greenspan, S. B., Griffith, C., & Murtagh, E. F. (2017). LGBTQ…

This paper presents findings from a study of students' writings about the erotic. These occurred in the form of graffiti and were scrawled on toilet doors for female students attending a higher education institution in Malta. The study explores how the erotic was defined and perceived by students, and how they attempted to create alternative…

This paper examines how transgender and gender non-conforming youth are represented and shaped as specific subjects vis-à-vis the cisgendered problematics of the washroom space in schools. In the first part of the paper, I undertake a critical analysis of one policy-informing text on the implementation of the gender neutral washroom in schools to…

Latrinalia consists of pictures and messages written on bathroom stalls (Dundes, 1966). Much of the research on latrinalia has focused on how people using men's and women's restrooms constructed those restrooms differently (Arluke, Kutakoff, & Levin, 1987; Bartholome & Snyder, 2004; Dundes, 1966; Kinsey et al., 1998). The authors look at…

This mixed-methods study of 507 trans and gender-nonconforming students (75% undergraduate, 25% graduate) aimed to understand (a) what institutional factors are associated with the presence of more trans-inclusive policies/supports, (b) what trans-inclusive policies/supports are viewed as important by different groups of trans students, and (c)…

Objective: Using student narratives of experiences of exclusion and non-inclusion at university, this paper builds an evidence base for, and explores ways in which universities can respond to, the contemporary concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, intersex and queer/questioning (LGBTIQ+) undergraduate students. Design:…

First-year student reflective journals showed a range of learning responses to a first week undergraduate class exercise. The exercise, about usually invisible bathroom rules, asked the question: "Which way should toilet paper hang?" with the underlying objective of demonstrating how "big-picture" sociological themes such as…

The study was set to assess the effects of inaccessibility of school toilets to girl pupils with disabilities. Statistics staggered around the world reveal that 2.4 billion people lack access to basic toilets. According to UNICEF report, more than half of the schools in the developed world lack private toilets. Whilst this is so, people with…

Children's use of the toilet at school, although rarely explored, is an important facet of school experience with consequences for physical and psychological health. A mixed methods study investigated views of 25 children (4-5 years) regarding potential stressors in the first school year, including views of toileting, in Dublin, Ireland. Despite…