Gender-neutral bathrooms required in West Hollywood

James Patrick Carraghan
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A new law, which requires all single-stall bathrooms to be gender-neutral, goes into effect tomorrow (15 January 2015). Businesses and public facilities will have 60 days to replace signs and make any necessary changes to the design of restrooms in order to make sure that they are gender-inclusive.

This law means that public restrooms are now going to be much safer for transgender and non-binary individuals, people with disabilities, and people with children of a different gender than their own.

‘I hope that we can encourage other cities to adopt this,’ said Councilwoman Abbe Land. ‘It’s really so easy when you think about it, and I’m glad that we’re one of the cities that is moving forward on that.’

A similar law is on the books in Washington, D.C. The District has recently began issuing warnings for buildings which do not comply with the law and has said that they would begin issuing fines in the near future.

Both the city of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, and the county of Multnomah, in Oregon, passed laws in 2013 that require single-occupant gender-neutral restrooms to be included in all new construction projects.

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About James Patrick Carraghan

James Patrick Carraghan is an award-winning activist, writer, librarian and student at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. He spends his free time gardening, hording books and flirting. You can follow him on tumblr at http://thelibrarynevercloses.tumblr.com/