College adds gender-neutral locker rooms

One progressive college is becoming a forerunner in label-free living.

Grinnell College added a gender-neutral locker room policy to its already-existing gender-neutral dormitory options. It is the only college in Iowa to offer an option for males and females to share their living space, USA Today reported:

“Male, female, transgender, no gender, gay, lesbian, straight. Labels don’t matter at Grinnell College. Students can share a dormitory room, bathroom, shower room or locker room with any of the above, if they choose.”

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The locker room will be offered to those using the recreational facilities, including physical education students, varsity athletes and spectators of athletic events. The private liberal arts college is a part of more than 50 colleges in the nation that participate in gender-neutral housing.

The gender neutral policy has helped many in the transgender community feel less pressure from the often-gender heavy roles that can take place in college-life.

“Ideally, we would live in a gender-neutral world where your sex wouldn’t define you. We wouldn’t be defined by our physical bodies,” Camila Barrios Camacho, student adviser of gender-neutral housing, told the Des Moines Register. “It would value the essence of a person rather than the physical makeup.”