‘How much more are we gonna have to tolerate?’: Miami reacts to Senate Bill 104

Two sources are anonymous, and one uses a pseudonym, Julia, for their safety.

The effects of Senate Bill 104 (S.B. 104), which requires people at Ohio K-12 schools and universities to use the restroom that aligns with their gender assigned at birth, have reached Miami University.

The law took effect 90 days after Governor Mike DeWine signed the bill. On Feb. 25, Miami installed paper male and female signs over the four multi-use gender neutral bathroom signs in the residence hall housing the Love. Honor. Pride. (LHP) Living Learning Community (LLC), as well as the ones in Stoddard and Elliott Halls.

LHP is an LLC “dedicated to creating a gender inclusive space for LGBTQIA+ students and their allies during their residential experience at Miami,” according to the Residence Life page on gender-inclusive housing.

The bill, mainly focused on college credit plus, would not prohibit a school from having single-occupancy facilities, only multi-occupancy facilities designated as non-gendered, multi-gendered or open to all genders, according to the Ohio Legislature.

However, the law would not apply to someone helping a person with a disability or a child younger than 10 years old, being assisted by a parent, guardian or family member, or in cases of emergency.

“This is not a change that's happening across campus,” wrote Seth Bauguess, senior director of communications, in an email statement to The Miami Student. “Miami is committed to providing a welcoming, supportive community where all students thrive.”

Student reactions

Almost immediately after they were put up, students in the dorm ripped the signs off.

Sofia Kise, a sophomore sociology and criminology major who is part of the LHP LLC, said she noticed that where the signs were supposed to be, only blue tape was left behind.

“The signs were ripped off because this was a promised safe space,” Kise said. “… [And now it’s] not inclusive, and not what it used to be.”

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Photo by Taylor Stumbaugh | The Miami Student
In a residence hall, a previously gender-neutral bathroom has been designated for male use only. The sign reads, "S.B. 104 has resulted in this bathroom being designated this way."

Another sophomore who lives in the LHP and is part of the queer community said it hasn't changed their day-to-day activities a whole lot, but that’s mainly because a “town hall” was held weeks ago in the residence hall about which bathrooms would change to what.

People from the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion attended the meeting. Robert Abowitz, the director of residence life, also joined, as well as mental health professionals.

“Even though there’s a lot of anger going around right now, a lot of us are trying to make it through our day-to-day lives,” the sophomore said. “There’s also just an understanding here that no matter what bathroom you use, you are always going to be viewed as your gender and as yourself. The bathroom situation is not going to change how people look at you in this building, and you’re still going to be respected no matter what.”

Two of the sophomores commented that they’ve noticed Miami workers patrolling the bathrooms. One of them, an organizational leadership major, said there were times at 2 a.m. when someone from Miami walked up to talk to them.

“I just want to brush my teeth,” he said. “Like, I don't feel super safe in my own residence hall anymore.”

He added that he thinks everyone’s mental health suffered after the signs were changed, and it’s a constant battle.

“A lot of it has just been tolerance,” he said. “This is something you just have to deal with now, and that kind of scares me because I’m like, ‘How much worse are things gonna get? How much more [are] we just gonna have to tolerate?’”

Julia, a sophomore majoring in psychology and neuroscience, said she has her own way of peacefully protesting the signs by drawing “silly little doodles” on the paper when she sees them. She added that sometimes she doesn’t get the chance to even grab her markers before they’re torn down.

“For most people, it’s obviously bad [and] they just feel like, why is this even happening in the first place?” Julia said. “It’s not even necessarily changing anything other than just feeling like no one’s on our side, and we have to do everything ourselves.”

Miami’s response

Abowitz said he met with the community before the law went into effect and informed them that the university was taking a two-prong approach.

One is complying with the law, and the other is supporting students in any way possible. He added that there’s an online map showing people where the single-use bathrooms are on campus.

“I think the language on [the signs] used to be gender neutral, but now it’s single use,” Abowitz said. “As far as I'm concerned, it’s the same thing, but we’re trying to match the language that raises the least attention.”

He said Miami is in the process of getting permanent signs.

Photo by Jessica Monahan | The Miami Student
The gender-neutral designation was removed from a single-use restroom in Armstrong.

“Everybody should have that same safe experience,” Abowitz said. “But now transgender students all around campus have to make the system work for them, and that’s challenging.”

In Bauguess’s statement, he wrote that Miami is required to follow the law and, as it does in all cases, will follow it on this matter.

The university’s facilities are in compliance as there are multi-occupancy restrooms that are designated for women or men and single-occupancy restrooms for all individuals to use throughout campus.

Other university responses

Miami’s neighbor to the south, the University of Cincinnati, took a different approach to the new law.

According to reporting from Cincinnati WCPO, some bathrooms on Cincinnati’s campus had been changed to say “biological men.”

Since then, the university has apologized and said the new signs will be replaced.

A senior psychology major and student leader at Cincinnati said she saw the reaction coming. She said she understands the university was put in a hard position, but she also acknowledged that they’ve been listening to student voices.

Similar to Miami, she said students at Cincinnati also took down signs, but they went a step further and protested as well.

“It’s really pretty beautiful to see how much students have come together and are fighting back,” she said.

Wright State University renamed its gender-neutral and multi-user restrooms to gender-specific use, according to reporting from the Dayton Daily News. Also, all single-occupancy restrooms were relabeled as family restrooms.

“I think the main thing that people need to know is this is not just like a queer people issue. This is an everyone issue,” the organizational leadership major said. “... And so I think it needs to not just be on the queer community to stand up and say, like, ‘Hey, this stuff's kind of screwed up,’ it needs to be on other people to make people feel safe in bathrooms.”

stumbata@miamioh.edu