Princeton Facing Civil Rights Complaint Over Gender-Neutral Communal Bathrooms

“Princeton has prioritized some students’ subjective feelings over all female Princeton students’ rights to sex-segregated intimate spaces”

Posted by Mike LaChance Sunday, December 7, 2025 at 09:00am 1 Comment

Why do schools even put themselves into this position? They’re just asking for trouble.

The College Fix reports:

Princeton hit with Title IX complaint over gender-neutral communal bathrooms

An education watchdog group recently filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education against Princeton University over the school’s gender-neutral communal bathrooms.

A spokesperson for Defending Education told The College Fix the group hopes its complaint will set a precedent for all higher education institutions.

The school is engaging in “discrimination based on sex in programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments,” Defending Education Vice President Sarah Perry stated in her letter to the Office for Civil Rights.

“Princeton has prioritized some students’ subjective feelings over all female Princeton students’ rights to sex-segregated intimate spaces,” Perry wrote.

The complaint highlights two of seven university residence colleges, Yeh College and New College West, which only offer gender-neutral communal bathrooms. Students are randomly assigned to residence halls in their first year and cannot opt out of communal bathrooms.

Exemptions for communal bathrooms are granted for medical and safety reasons, and are limited in number.

The education advocacy group claimed that the gender-neutral bathrooms violate Title IX, as well as President Donald Trump’s recent Executive Order, which requires federally funded programs to recognize the biological distinction between binary sexes, male and female, for the enforcement of civil rights law.

The complaint was filed after several parents brought their concerns to the university and to Defending Education.

One exhibit in the complaint describes a parent who contacted the university but was discouraged by its lack of action to address concerns about her daughter’s safety and well-being.

The College Fix reached out to Princeton University’s media relations office and Michele Minter, the vice provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity & Title IX Coordinator, for comments on this case. Neither responded.

However, Defending Education Senior Director Paul Runko told The College Fix that Princeton has not publicly responded to the complaint.

He added that the group hopes the complaint will influence other institutions to update their policies.