Transgender bathroom movement on UW–Madison’s campus sees little change

Though UW–Madison’s campus has been working toward being more accepting of the LGBTQ+ community, there is no easy solution to making gender-neutral bathrooms more accessible. And for UW–Madison freshman Simone Williams, a transgender student, gender-neutral bathrooms are a top priority.

None of the buildings that Simone has classes in have a gender-neutral bathroom. But men’s and women’s restrooms are places where Simone has been targeted and even physically harassed.

Emily is a senior majoring in journalism and philosophy. She is currently an intern at University Communications, where she writes news stories and multimedia pieces about campus.

Most of her free time, however, is spent working for The Badger Herald newspaper. She has held positions as a reporter, state news associate editor, print news editor, marketing strategist, and is currently a voting member of the Board of Directors and the features editor.

When not working on journalism-related things, Emily spends time volunteering in a new campus organization called Madison Public Philosophy. She teaches philosophy to grade-school kids at the Salvation Army and helps forge other partnerships to bring philosophy to the community. Emily is also currently working on a senior honors thesis about the meaning of life. In the future, she hopes to become either a magazine writer, TV news reporter or lawyer.