In 2014, teams of students and faculty dressed up as toilets and paraded around campus, hanging posters up in every bathroom they could find and sharing information with everyone with whom they crossed paths. The words ‘FREE TO PEE’, a call to provide gender-neutral bathroom facilities to the George Brown College (GBC) community, could be found at toilets across the college.
The Free to Pee campaign was sparked at George Brown College (GBC) when Community Action Centre staff member, Robin Magder, brought up concerns regarding their experiences of bullying and exclusion in GBC bathrooms as a gender non-conforming person. From there a coalition of stakeholders was brought together to campaign for a safer campus where people of all genders can use the bathroom they would like and work towards the implementation of gender-neutral multi-stall washrooms.
Seven years later, the committee has since been disbanded, their goals have yet to be reached, and trans students are still feeling unsafe in GBC washrooms.
“As a queer employee at the college, and as somebody with many loved ones who are trans, nonbinary, or gender nonconforming, I know how impactful it can be to someone’s physical well-being, emotional well-being, academic success, and sense of belonging when they can’t access the basic infrastructure they need to function in that environment,” says Kate Klein who was the coordinator of the Community Action Centre at the start of the campaign and is now working in the college’s Post-Secondary Education Program.
“I too am extremely proud of the work we did on that committee, although I do have mixed emotions about our success,” says Jules Lewis who previously participated in the Free to Pee campaign.
Through a poster and flyer campaign that also involved meeting with representatives of the facilities department, the original Free to Pee campaign personnel moved towards their goals of replacing all the signage on accessible washrooms to be gender-neutral, form multi-stall gender-neutral washrooms, and push for a cultural shift across campus.
“Washroom access is not just about who is literally allowed into what washroom, it’s also about how people are treated when they get there, which requires a widespread commitment to not policing each other’s genders,” says Klein.
Throughout their campaign, they noted that their advocacy for changed infrastructure and culture would not only positively benefit trans students and faculty, but also many others such as parents and those with assistive mobility devices.
“We quickly also noted that in doing that, it shed light on the need for safe spaces for parents with children who frequent our campuses, and persons with assistive mobility devices – both groups are also poorly served with our bathroom infrastructure, but with gender-neutral bathrooms, they would also have more safe and secure options,” says Matt Foran a Manager in the Academic Upgrading Programs and previously worked with the Free to Pee campaign.
Since the campaign in 2014, advocacy around trans inclusion and equal access has been picking up outside of GBC circles. The original organizers of the GBC Free to Pee campaign have even seen how it impacted other post-secondary campuses around the Greater Toronto Area.
“I was presenting at a conference at an Ontario college that is not George Brown about three years ago. I was washing my paws in the washroom, and what did I see but a hand-drawn (photocopied) poster slapped up on the wall, which said ‘They are Free to Pee at GBC – we can be here too/why can’t we be here too??!!” says Heather Lash a Faculty member in the Centre for Preparatory and Liberal Studies who had been a part of the original campaign.
“I believe that over the past number of years, trans acceptance and gender issues have gained some public and institutional credibility and are very much part of the conversation and considerations in facilities management. I’d like to think that our work at the time contributed to that in some small way, even if GBC never really embraced the message,” says Lewis.
The posters were set to be a part of the campaign though, not the end goal, so the previous organizers are disappointed by the lack of overall change.
“So while I believe the campaign aspect of the group was fairly successful (those posters are still popping up and I burst with pride every time I see one), I don’t feel that the college as an institution responded to our requests for more gender-neutral space or better signage on existing facilities. This is particularly disappointing to me because the outcome I was most interested in seeing was simply more places to pee,” says Lewis.
“It means something to me that on some campuses, these posters got laminated and have become permanent fixtures in the culture of the washrooms. These posters are definitely not enough, though. We still haven’t seen the dream of having multi-stall gender-neutral washrooms on campus realized,” says Klein.
The Free to Pee campaign has since been dropped but past organizers would love for it to make a comeback and it may be seen as necessary as trans students still do not feel like they can safely use the washroom. This was recently highlighted by a publicly acknowledged incident where Charlie Reynolds, a trans student on campus, was allegedly followed into the bathroom by security personnel, was accused of being in the wrong bathroom, and was instructed to leave.
“The Free to Pee Committee is no longer active, to the best of my knowledge,” says Lewis. “I don’t think there was any actual decision to stop it, it was just a matter of the key organizers moving on to different things. I would love to see a fresh group pick it up and run with it!”
It is believed that a change to infrastructure alone will not solve issues of discrimination or harassment. A cultural shift is needed, but providing safe and accessible places can be a start.
“If George Brown wants to prevent violence and harassment against trans people in washrooms, the college needs to commit to widespread education and policy change that centres the safety and belonging of trans students,” says Klein.
