Sign at UChicago lets women know men will be using their restroom: report

A sign at UChicago was recently placed by a women’s bathroom warning those who entered that they “may see a trans or nonbinary person.” The sign said these biological men who entered the bathroom “pose no risk” to the women inside. 

The sign, a picture of which was posted to student newspaper the Chicago Thinker’s Twitter page, was allegedly found on the first floor of the Regenstein Library on Feb. 24. 

Men have officially colonized the women’s bathroom on the first floor of the Regenstein Library on campus. Nothing says female empowerment like that! pic.twitter.com/7zNtGWbaMS

— The Chicago Thinker (@ThinkerChicago) February 24, 2023

The Chicago Thinker Social Media Director, Mitch Robson, told Campus Reform that he posted a picture of the sign to the paper’s Twitter page “right after [he] found it.” 

“I find it alarming that radical gender ideology has made its way to the bathrooms of UChicago,” continued Robson, “where some men seem to feel they can enter women’s bathrooms with impunity.”

“This secular religion has moved past the ‘live and let live’ phase and into a phase of shoving itself down everyone’s throats,” he added.

[RELATED: U Chicago students say school made them ‘unsafe’ by allowing a speaker to say ‘tranny’]

Policies regarding gender resources can be found on UChicago’s website, indicating that gender-neutral, single-user bathrooms and locker rooms are available at the university to those who identify as transgender or non-binary. A 9-page document is dedicated to this specifically. 

Katie Pelkey, staff writer at the Chicago Thinker, also registered her objections to the UChicago bathroom sign when asked for comment by Campus Reform.

”As the mother of a 9-year-old daughter, allowing men in the women’s restroom worries me,” said Pelkey. “In my mind, the real debate isn’t over bathrooms ... The real debate is about boundaries and how we want our society to function.”

She continued, “First it was bathrooms, then it was locker rooms, and now we have trans women competing in women’s sports. The answer isn’t accommodating these individuals who seek to make the world bend to their will; instead, we need to help find a way for them to feel whole as they are.”

”The sign is extremely insulting and condescending,” Pelkey added. “[T]he sign makes a caricature out of women by using words such as ‘gasp’ or ‘dramatic,’ a reflection of how they seem to think women act and behave.”

Alongside its many gender-neutral bathrooms, UChicago also has what it calls “open housing” where anyone of any gender can live. 

Athletics are also affected. “Gender options for the purpose of intramural sports are: Male, Female and Non-Binary,” reads the gender policies and resources page. 

Students who participate in intramural sports “will be asked their gender on their intramural entry form.” Nowhere does the website specify whether forms also need to be marked with respect to biological sex when students are on same-gender teams. 

UChicago’s health insurance also provides coverage for “gender-affirming surgeries,” including “[p]halloplasty (creation of a penis)” as well as “[v]aginoplasty (creation of a vagina).”

[RELATED: UChicago announces ‘The Problem with Whiteness’ course]

The ubiquity of leftist ideology at UChicago was also exemplified by a 2022 class called “The Problem with Whiteness,” as well as by a “climate anxiety” event in January for BIPOC students.

Although UChicago has been known in recent years for valuing free speech more than many other universities, some students at the school have worried that the culture of free expression that has characterized the campus is dying because of diversity and inclusion ideology. 

Relevant parties were contacted for comments by Campus Reform; this report will be updated as needed. 

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article did not include comments received from Robson and Pelkey. It has been updated to include comments received after publication.