Bathroom Signage Policy at the University of Cincinnati Causes Action and Raises Questions About the Rights of Trans Students

October 20, 2026/in Gov & Politics/by Avery Smith

This story first appeared in Queer Cincinnati: Beyond the Binary, published Oct. 23, 2026.

On February 25th, 2025, Ohio Revised Code 3345.90 went into effect, which requires higher education institutions to designate multi-occupant student restrooms, student locker rooms, student show rooms, and student changing rooms, “for the exclusive use by students of the male biological sex only or by students of the female biological sex only.”

In an attempt to abide by this law, the University of Cincinnati (UC) replaced the gendered bathroom signage around campus to state, “Biological Men,” and “Biological Women.”

UC sent out an email the following day in which they recognized that the current signage using the term “biological” was an error.

The email went on to further state, “We recognize that recent signage updates have raised concerns. Please know that our intention was never to withhold important information or create uncertainty. The university’s requirement to comply with the law does not take away from its commitment to creating a learning environment that fosters opportunity and develops educated and engaged citizens.”

As a response to the university, Simone Balachandran aka Simon Brine, associate professor and environmental engineering educator in the department of chemical engineering, called for trans women and allies to show up to the locker rooms in protest. In early March, Brine, along with several other trans women, went into the men’s locker room, stripped down naked, and talked to the cisgender men in the bathroom.

“I felt powerful. I wanted to force them to see what a trans woman’s body looks like. When people see trans bodies, it will change their minds,” Brine said. When asked about her thought process behind the protest, Brine responded, “It is called activist judo. The idea is not to try and win; it is to try and lose, with the reasoning coming from the reality that the law is not going to be in your favor, but you can exploit the loss. I am going to follow the law, and the law allows me to get naked in the locker room and force you into a position where you have to recognize my existence.”

“When we asked the men there what they thought about the law and the sign, all of them thought it was ridiculous and thought we should be in the other locker room. One person even thought they were going into the wrong locker room,” Brine said.

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But do trans and gender non-conforming students actually feel that the university is committed to fostering a safe and effective learning environment?

Noah Wardega, a recent UC graduate, does not think so. “My first thought was that it is impractical. How could they even enforce that? But, ever since the policy was put in place, I stopped using the bathrooms on campus.”

When asked about the impact the policy had on their life, Seven Kiener, a senior social work student, said, “It caused me to completely reevaluate my relationship with the service work I was doing for the university. I have completely stepped away from any UC-based groups and changed my plans for grad school so that they no longer include UC.”

It is clear the law has rattled trans people on campus, and when asked how UC can better protect trans students, Eliza Guerra, a university member, said, “We need more classes and instructors teaching queer authors and content without fear of anti-DEI policies.”

But can professors and staff actually do that?

SB 1, the “Advance Higher Education Act,” requires institutional neutrality on controversial political or global matters while also requiring institutions to conduct annual faculty reviews.

So, when the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security released its third red flag alert warning that the United States is within the early to middle stages of a genocidal process against trans people, “the goal of which is to completely erase transgender people not only from public life but also from existence in the U.S. and globally,” there is a real question about how professors would even be able to bring this report up.

Brine believes that to present this to a classroom of students, you would have to also present the conservative argument regarding transgender rights.

As of today, UC has since removed “biological” from their bathroom signs, but what were now gender neutral bathrooms have since turned into single-use bathrooms.