Searching for a little bit of decency in the world? This tweet might help.
For someone who identifies as transgender, intersex or is a gender nonconforming individual, despite advances in acceptance, life is still very difficult, especially when it comes to going to the restroom.
Thankfully, more and more places are introducing gender inclusive bathrooms to allow people of all genders to have access to a bathroom and feel safe.
So when 19-year-old student Julissa Emile discovered that location of her school's collegiate poetry slam competition in Chicago featured a gender neutral bathroom, she decided to celebrate — by taking a picture of herself in there, of course.
But that's when something even better happened, as more and more people joined in on the photo to create a beautiful symbol of inclusivity.
Speaking with Buzzfeed News, Emile explains that she was “just taking selfies in this amazing bathroom and then my friend Madaline joined me, and then Ellie and Lucas and Jeffry came in.”
Emile shared these photos on Twitter with the caption: “A gender neutral bathroom but every time I take a picture more queer people get in the photo.”
Immediately, there was an overwhelming amount of positive responses from people all across the internet.
Some started calling it “the purest thing” they’ve seen in a long time and others were simply happy to see so many queer people coexisting together in a gender neutral bathroom.
Far too many times, we hear of transgender and other gender nonconforming individuals being targeted by offensive ads and afraid of entering bathrooms.
In 2016, the National Center for Transgender Equality did a survey which revealed that 59 per cent of trans people in the United States are afraid to go into a restroom.
This series of selfies shows that allowing people to coexist together can be a much better alternative than making them feel excluded.
The concept of the photo series is being compared to the famous meme and Youtube style called “Replacement Remixes,” where every time a word gets repeated the video either accelerates or gets replaced by a sound or word.
You can even put this tweet in line with another huge meme that took over the internet earlier this year, after a far-right Twitter user posted a photo of two people on public transit and captioned it “the future that liberals want.”
According to BuzzFeed, Emile hopes that her tweet will help remind people it is possible to coexist in a situation “that’s so simple as just going to the bathroom.”
She continues by saying that she thinks “gender-neutral bathrooms are a necessity” and that “everyone deserves the right to exist in a public space.”
All photos courtesy of Julissa Emile.