Earlier this week, while I was at the Jewish Funds for Justice's Kehillot Kedoshot gathering, the men's bathroom that was in proximity to the epicenter of the conference (it was in our wing of the hotel) was converted to a gender-neutral bathroom. Now, the women's bathroom wasn't so far away, but I imagine that the conference went ahead with this measure because they thought that the women needed more stalls. Unfortunately, the next closest men's restroom was near the lobby, a couple minutes away.While I was not sure whether I would personally be comfortable or not using the gender-neutral restroom, I figured it would not be an appropriate thing as an Orthodox rabbinical student to be doing. In fact, none of my fellow YCTers used it either. I think we figured that it was not צניעות (modest) to be doing so. I just had never before contemplated the halakhah about gender-neutral restrooms before, though it was interesting to encounter.
