Officials at Illinois State University are probably sick of only being known for working where journeyman coach Doug Collins played basketball and where hilarious actors Jane Lynch and Craig Robinson went to school.
They are now changing the signage on the taxpayer-funded school’s single-stall bathrooms from the totally square word “family” to the totally avant-garde term “all-gender,” reports The Vidette, the school newspaper.
The new signs will feature both female and male figures. There will also be a figure that is half-female and half-male. Presumably, these three images will cover all genders.
The half-female and half-male image is the “new international accessibility symbol for transgenders,” Illinois State spokesman Michael Shane McCreery told The Vidette.
The person at Illinois State who got the idea for the new signs is Sandy Colbs, the student counseling services director. She put a picture of the half-female, half-male image on her Facebook page, explains The Vidette.
McCreery loved his colleague’s Facebook idea, so the school implemented it as official policy.
Did any students actually ask for the new signs? Nope. Not one.
“We try to be both proactive and reactive,” McCreery told The Vidette. “This is a situation where I thought we could be proactive and make this change.”
He also called the new bathrooms “all-human.”
It’s not clear why the word “family” does not encompass all humans.
“While most people may not even know the sign has changed, I’m anticipating those in the LGBTQ community will appreciate it,” McCreery added.
McCreery holds the impressively long, 13-word title of director and ethics officer in the office of equal opportunity ethics and access.
On Colbs’s Facebook page, she indicates that she is involved in Your Normal LGBT Film Festival and Acorn Equality Fund, a grassroots organization for gay people.
Another school spokesman, David Bentlin, described the new bathroom names as a positive change.
“Having a gender-neutral bathroom, gives them a facility that they can use and they can feel comfortable about,” Bentlin told the campus rag.
The new signs will affect roughly 10 single-stall bathrooms around campus. Several of the bathrooms are in residence halls.
McCreery noted that absolutely nothing will actually change about the bathrooms except for the new signs.
H/t: Campus Reform
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