On Sept. 23, 2023, California made history by becoming the first state to mandate that K-12 schools provide gender-neutral bathrooms as Governor Gavin Newsom signed California Senate Bill (SB) 760. The bill requires that “each school district, county office of education and charter school” provide gender neutral bathrooms on campus by July 1, 2026, and makes it more difficult for schools to close bathrooms.

In a press release following the passage of SB 760, as well as other bills that aim to protect California’s LGBTQ+ community, Newsom highlighted the importance of inclusive legislation.

“California is proud to have some of the most robust laws in the nation when it comes to protecting and supporting our LGBTQ+ community and we’re committed to the ongoing work to create safer, more inclusive spaces for all Californians,” Newsom said. “These measures will help protect vulnerable youth, promote acceptance and create more supportive environments in our schools and communities.”

Redwood has offered gender-neutral bathrooms for years, but many Redwood students and staff members are still excited by this bill. Redwood Wellness Center’s outreach specialist, Maggie Maguire, often works with nonbinary students and is among those who support SB 760.

“I think [this bill passing is] great. I love being one of the first states to [make gender neutral restrooms] required in schools. I’m proud that Redwood was making small strides towards this already before it was mandated,” Maguire said.

Although Redwood provides inclusive bathrooms, non-binary students like Vel Connolly find the current arrangement of bathrooms unsatisfactory.

“For each gender neutral bathroom, we have a different problem: people will take a half an hour in the one in [the Wellness Center, so] it takes forever to get in and out,” Connolly said, “In the one by [the drama room], I know someone who was basically attacked — people were banging on the doors, yelling slurs and trying to grab them when they left. The one in the little gym is really far away and is almost always locked.”

SB 760 may help ensure that students like Connolly can access bathrooms at all times in the future. Beyond requiring gender neutral bathrooms on school campuses, the bill restricts the circumstances school bathroom closures are allowed to only maintenance purposes, or a threat to student safety according to Maguire.

“Having an increase of gender-neutral bathrooms accessible on campus in main-populated areas will [improve accessibility], and diminish anxiety for many non-binary and gender fluid students,” Maguire said.

Gender neutral bathroom rights are not the end of the problem for trans and nonbinary inclusion at Redwood, as Connolly noted.

“A bigger problem than just gender neutral bathrooms is not having gender neutral changing spaces. [Students] were promised gender neutral changing spaces last year and what ended up happening is [the district] put 6 very small lockers in one of the gender neutral bathrooms. [That] is the most unhelpful way [the district] could have handled [the situation],” Connolly said.

Students are required to change for two years as part of the physical education curriculum, which can pose a problem for non-binary students who do not have access to their own changing space. All the specific issues of gender neutral changing spaces have yet to be addressed by either the Tamalpais Union High School District or California law. Redwood’s Assistant Principal Saum Zargar, believes that there are more opportunities to improve equitability at the school.

“[Administration] is always looking to see what improvements we can make, no doubt about it. We are working with staff in the [Physical Education] department to add gender-neutral changing rooms as well as looking to add additional spaces in the main building and other parts of campus,” Zargar said.

Newsom’s recent push recognized that trans and nonbinary student support needs to go farther than simply bathrooms. The legislation that was passed on Sept. 23 includes funding for training teachers to foster LGTBQ+ inclusive classrooms, rules that make it easier to change one’s name or gender and the creation of a task force to examine the needs of LGBTQ+ students.