A Lancaster County college is the latest school riding a wave of change across the country, taking the issue of gender out of some of its accommodations. Elizabethtown College is embracing gender-neutral dorms to help transgender students feel accepted.
Most of the school's dorm rooms are split up by sex, but now, in one dorm, the rooms are co-ed, or "gender-neutral." Students don't have to apply to live there, or disclose their gender identity or sexuality.
The school is also changing a number of its bathrooms to be gender-neutral. Officials say it will help students feel accepted.
"They may not be sure where they're going to be accepted," says Stephanie Collins, a dorm coordinator. "And the last thing you want to think about when you're going to the bathroom is well which door should I go in, where am I going to receive the least amount of backlash?"
The school says 75% of students supported the changes in a survey last year.
"I definitely think this is the way things are going to be going from here on out," says Collins. "The schools that have made the changes already along with Elizabethtown, we're the frontrunners of it."
While PA has non-discrimination laws, there's no state law that requires gender-neutral bathroom changes like this. But the federal Department of Labor issued guidelines this summer, saying transgender employees should have access to the bathroom that matches their gender identity.
In some states, some lawmakers are fighting back, through public schools. In three states, lawmakers have introduced bills to require students to use the restrooms that correspond with their biological sex at birth instead.
At Elizabethtown, students say their school is a frontrunner for a transgender movement that's growing.
"There are things that our predecessors have left out, not for any malicious reasons but they just haven't dealt with it yet and they're comfortable where they're at," says student Daryl Backer. "So it's the younger generation's responsibility to push for these different types of things."