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Carolina students and Chapel Hill community members need to feel safe in all public spaces. Transgender individuals experience discrimination on a daily basis in our stores and offices that conform to the gender binary and marginalize gender non-conforming folks. Our petition, started in Fall 2015, calls for gender-neutral bathrooms in the town of Chapel Hill to ensure the safety of everyone in our community regardless of gender identity. These signatures show local businesses that inclusive bathrooms are important to their customers. Gender-neutral bathrooms also help parents with children of a different gender and folks with disabilities who have a caregiver of a different gender--as well as people who really have to pee!
We decided to focus on local businesses for two reasons. First, there are already many groups on campus focusing on creating more gender-neutral bathrooms, and those projects are for the most part already in the works. Thus, we knew our resources were best directed toward other projects. Another reason we focused on local businesses is that we know that as UNC students, our lives do not end on campus. We are members of the community as well. We decided to reach outside of our campus bubble to advocate for change in our community, not only for ourselves, but also for others who live here. Small businesses are an intersection of the town of Chapel Hill and UNC where any changes we make can be appreciated by all. We determined that this project would be a good bridge into community advocacy. Sign our petition here. View our list of businesses with gender-neutral bathrooms here. |