For advocates, installing gender-neutral toilets in the Lyceum of the Philippines University is a step towards protecting the rights of the LGBT community in the campus
MANILA, Philippines – The Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU) – Manila approved the school’s first gender-neutral toilets on Tuesday, March 14.
A gender-neutral restroom is a public toilet that all people, regardless of gender identity or expression, can use. Two (2) gender-neutral toilets will be installed in the university premises.
“(It’s) one big step (towards) a more open-minded and a more embracive LPU,” LPU Kasarian’s founding president Dencio Pedere Arcadio said in a Facebook post. LPU Kasarian, a student organization that promotes gender equality within the campus, led the advocacy.
Arcadio told Rappler that his organization “believes that having a gender-neutral restroom is one way to achieve our goal – that is, gender equality – as well as to eradicate or minimize discrimination and bullying.”
The Facebook post generated more than 700 likes and over 200 shares to date. Many Facebook users hailed the project of the gender and LGBT equality organization.
In September 2016, Ateneo de Davao University also installed its own gender-neutral restroom to “increase understanding and respect for the human needs and sensitivities of all.”
The Inquirer earlier reported that gender-neutral restrooms will be built in 41 commercial airports across the country to cater to the LGBT community. The plan is part of the gender awareness development program of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).
