Parents’ rights organization Defending Education has filed a complaint with the US Department of Education, alleging that Princeton University may be violating Title IX by requiring female students to use “gender-neutral” bathrooms with gaps in the stalls.
According to a report by Fox News, the complaint states that the Ivy League school provides roughly 250 “gender-inclusive” restrooms, all-gender dorms, and prescribes gender hormone replacement therapy, which the group argues conflicts with federal law and directives.
The complaint specifically cites bathroom policies at Yeh College and New College West, where more than 500 students reportedly share gender-neutral bathrooms with multiple showers and toilet stalls, requiring students to pass through common spaces to access them. Female students have previously expressed discomfort with these policies in the school newspaper, saying they make them uncomfortable and feel “unsafe.”
“First-year Princeton students cannot ‘opt out’ of the communal bathroom arrangement because Princeton ‘randomly assigns’ first-year students to one of several residential colleges,” the complaint said. “As a result, Princeton forces female students to use ‘communal bathroom stalls [that] have gaps, which makes using them feel less safe and private,’ and which create situations where female students ‘walk in on guys literally peeing standing up with the door open.’”
The complaint also addresses university graduation practices, including the “Rose Graduation,” which celebrates women’s accomplishments, and the “Lavender Graduation,” which honors queer and transgender students.
The group is calling for the Department of Education to investigate Princeton for “unlawful practices” and to require the university to “correct its violations of federal law immediately.”
