To help some students feel more comfortable while taking care of business, four on-campus restrooms have recently been converted into unisex restrooms.

“Some people are worried about what they don’t understand,” said Ethan Harriger, a 22-year-old SF State student who gets odd looks when he goes to the women’s restroom. It can make for an uncomfortable situation. Harriger is a pre-operation transgender who was born as a woman but identifies and dresses as a man.

“When people see me from behind they wonder why there’s a man in the women’s room,” said Harriger, who does not use the men’s room since he hasn’t yet had the operation.

Transgenders, like Harriger, do not identify with the sex they were born as. Sometimes they identify with the opposite sex more, or feel just right somewhere in between. For them, going to the restroom can be a big question mark. They have to decide which sex-specific restroom is the right one for them.

The new restrooms, located in the Humanities, Fine Arts, Burk Hall, and Business buildings, were converted a few weeks ago and aim to provide transgendered and other individuals with privacy and safety.

“Some students feel uncomfortable, due to various reasons: transgender issues, health issues, privacy issues,” said Albert Angelo, a health educator at the Student Health Services. Angelo serves on the Student Affairs Committee, which worked to have the restrooms converted.

The committee reviewed single-stall restrooms on campus and determined which ones could be converted easily. New signs and locks were then added, said Angelo.

“It’s about creating a safe space. People should have the right to pee in peace,” said Bradley Zeledon, 19, president of the Queer Alliance on campus.

“It’s also a matter of respect. They’re saying there is only man and only woman, when there’s more going on, more people in between,” said Zeledon.

“It filled a gap,” Zeledon said. “It’s just a bathroom, but way, way more.”

During the campaign for unisex restrooms on campus, Zeledon heard many stories about people being harassed or stared at for being in the “wrong” restroom. Several students had to borrow keys to use faculty restrooms in order to feel safer.

“It really did surprise me,” said Zeledon, a sophomore theatre major who said that he personally has never experienced this kind of harassment. “I just go in, do my thing. I don’t worry about getting beaten up.”

Both Zeledon and Harriger are surprised that it took SF State this long to have more unisex restrooms on campus.

“You think being in San Francisco, ours would be one of the first and leading, but it’s not,” Harriger said. Colleges in California that already had unisex restrooms include UCLA and UC San Diego, according to the Transgender Law and Policy Institute.

Public places, like SF State, are required by law to make sure there’s no discrimination against anyone, said Chris Daley, director of the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco. Although there is no law that establishments must provide unisex restrooms, having them prevents students from being discriminated.

The Transgender Law center had been working in affiliation with the organization, People In Search of Safe Restrooms, to campaign for gender-neutral restrooms in San Francisco.

In 2001, PISSR surveyed 487 transgender, gender-queer, gender questioning, lesbian, gay and bisexual people. The organization found that 99 percent of the people surveyed wanted gender-neutral restrooms.

It also surveyed about 260 businesses in San Francisco and found more than half have gender-neutral restrooms. Most restrooms are single-stall, but some businesses are trying out multi-stall restrooms, Daley said.

“Generally you won’t see any problems, but there is usually some signage to explain to people that these are unisex bathrooms,” he said.

On campus there are no extra signs to explain the new functions of the bathrooms and some students do not even know that restrooms are there, or that the doors can be locked.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” said William Lao, 23. “One time, I was using it and some lady came.”

Even after finding out the door can be locked, he still did not warm up the idea. Jasmine Mitose, 19, thinks that the restrooms should not have to be designated to either sex. When she wears men’s clothing, occupants in the ladies’ room sometimes mistake Mitose as a boy. She said people stare at her because they think she is in the wrong restroom.

“Why separate them in the first place?” said Mitose, a Theatre major who identifies herself as pansexual, meaning she will love anyone who is “fine.” She has only one concern about sharing a restroom with men.

“Boys have disgusting bathrooms,” she said. “But this might actually help with the hygiene ... boys are neater when girls are around.”