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At Seattle University School of Law, students who want to use one of the school's two fully accessible gender-neutral bathrooms must travel up to the third floor of the law library via a specific stairwell or elevator.

At the University of Minnesota Law School, students seeking one of the school's two gender-neutral bathrooms must go to the library's fourth floor—a trip that can take up to 10 minutes.

Students on both campuses are lobbying administrators to add gender-neutral restrooms, following in the footsteps of Yale law students who successfully pushed to add the school's first multi-stall gender-neutral restrooms earlier this year. Yale in February dedicated two new such restrooms, which required a legal challenge to a Connecticut building code that mandated a certain number of restrooms for men and women in every building.

Their counterparts at Seattle and Minnesota hope to achieve similar success. More than 400 people have signed a petition asking Seattle Law Dean Annette Clark to convert the school's single-gender restrooms into gender-neutral ones. The petition was circulated by Seth Alexander, a transgender student who said that he is uncomfortable using gendered restrooms and that the remote location of the existing two gender-neutral stalls means he often doesn't have the time to access them. Alexander acknowledged that the change may be uncomfortable, at least initially.

"Bathrooms are an unavoidable part of all of our lives, and everyone should have reliable, convenient access to bathrooms," the petition reads. "This is merely the next step that the law school can take to realize its goal of advancing social justice. De-gendering bathrooms is good for everyone of all genders. In the meantime, increasing knowledge and awareness of the gender-neutral bathrooms in the law school is equally important."

Clark met with Alexander and responded to the petition earlier this month with a message to students that said the school is committed to safe and accessible restrooms for everyone, and that the issue should be considered further, according to the university newspaper.

"I think the fact that we are engaging in these conversations is healthy, but there are real emotions operating among members of our community who have differing views and experiences on these questions, and so I ask that we practice civil discourse and care for others as we engage in discussion (especially on social media), as befits a community of professionals and colleagues," Clark wrote.

Meanwhile, Minnesota's Law Council—the law school's student governing body—is leading the charge to add gender-neutral restrooms to its campus. The group sent a letter to administrators Nov. 12 asking for the conversion of three existing restrooms into gender-neutral ones. (It does not request that all restrooms in the law school become gender-neutral.)

Law Dean Garry Jenkins released a statement to students Nov. 22 saying that administrators are reviewing the law school's infrastructure to see if more gender-neutral restrooms can be added, and that they hope to have a decision by February, according to the Minnesota Daily.

"As always, we want to partner with students in collaborative efforts to improve the environment and culture at the Law School," said Jenkins' statement. "I encourage all members of our community with ideas on building a more welcoming and inclusive environment to communicate with law school leadership."

Yale Law School's OutLaws, an organization that supports lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer members of the law school community, spearheaded the addition of gender-neutral restrooms to campus. But the effort took three years. The group began pushing for more such bathrooms in 2016, but ran up against state building codes. Eventually, then-Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy intervened on the school's behalf.