LGBT Advocacy Students Speak Out Against Draft Locker Room Policy

Debate over the new University Recreation Inclusive Locker Room policy draft broke out at the monthly UWM Chancellor’s Advisory Committee for LGBT+ Advocacy meeting on April 7, with some claiming it discriminates against LGBT students.

The Klotsche Center currently has three locker rooms, a men’s locker room, a women’s locker room and a family locker room. However, the family locker room is not connected to the pool and only has two private bathrooms each with a shower and room to change. The family locker room also does not provide enough lockers to rent them to students for the semester. The policy would make it so students could use the locker room of their choice as long as it aligns with their chosen gender identity.

Some argue that the policy draft as is doesn’t include inclusive enough language.

“The policy as written seems to discriminate against intersex individuals,” Jeff Guenther, co-chair of the Advisory Committee for LGBT+ Advocacy, said.

Some also felt it was a violation of their rights.

“The policy as it is now outs trans individuals,” Elijah Walker said. The policy could give student employees at Klotsche the opportunity to police trans and intersex individuals, he added. Walker is a freshman and serves as the Student Association LGBT plus advocacy senator.

“Advocacy is something that I’m really passionate about, and it’s something that affects me personally because I identify as trans,” Walker said. Walker advocates for people with marginalized identities as the senator. They work on things like the inclusive locker room policy and preferred name system here at UWM.

“A couple months ago we had a student who identifies as a trans woman,” Michael Laliberte, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, said. “The issue came up that they thought we had a policy when it comes to locker rooms, but we do not.” In response to this, the University Recreation Inclusive Locker Room Policy draft was created.  However, not everyone is happy with the results.

“I think it’s really not inclusive and discriminatory against trans individuals,” Walker said. “I just think it’s a title IX violation, and I don’t understand how people don’t see that.”

Title IX states that no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. It’s the law that makes it so men and women have to be treated equally and in a more modern sense that trans individuals have to be treated the same as cisgender individuals.

“Specifically three and four are blatantly discriminatory because that’s specifically tailored towards trans individuals,” Walker said about the draft. Point three of the Inclusive Locker Room Policy states that individuals possessing female genitalia or breasts who wish to use the designated men’s locker room must ensure that their female genitalia and breasts are not visible to other users of the men’s locker room. Four states that individuals possessing male genitalia who wish to use the designated women’s locker room must ensure that their male genitalia are not visible to other users in the women’s locker room.

“It is not the burden of the university to tell trans students with non-conforming genitalia to cover up,” Mike Sportiello said at the meeting. Sportiello is a junior at UWM and is the president of the Student Association or SA. The SA’s mission is to advocate and represent students as well as fund student services.

“[The policy] doesn’t at all touch on intersex bodies or that sex is a spectrum,” Walker said. “It’s basing all of it’s information on the idea that they think sex is binary and that everyone is going to have the same anatomy.”

However, some argued that the draft was at least a step in the right direction.

“What we’re trying to do is put a policy in place to show that we’re trying to do something,” Laliberte said. Others also pointed out the language used in the draft was consistent with the language used in Wisconsin law. However the language is not consistent with what is used in the trans community.

“In 1A their use of ‘assigned sex’ is just totally wrong, and I think that’s because they didn’t include any trans individuals when they crafted this document,” Walker said. “This is a trans specific policy, so including those individuals in crafting this policy is incredibly important and they totally missed that and I think that was also discriminatory.” Before tabling the discussion, which took up a majority of the meeting, Guenther urged those drafting the policy to create a more trans inclusive policy draft for further discussion at a future meeting.

“What the 20 people in this room decide could affect the rights of trans people across the country,” Sportiello said.