“All gender” bathroom bill passes California legislature
Bill mandates public buildings and businesses offer equal access bathrooms
“This simple bill allows single-room occupancy bathrooms to be convenient, to be fair and to really be equal for everybody.”
–California Assemblyman Phil Ting, speaking on the floor of the Assembly Monday, as lawmakers in both houses approved his bill — AB 1732 — which would make single-occupancy bathrooms in the state “all gender.”
Tings bill requires that public buildings and businesses remove any gendered labels from single-occupancy bathrooms and replaces them with gender-neutral descriptors,” the Los Angeles Times reports. It would improve upon a 2013 law which mandates that students in the state be allowed to use facilities that correspond with their gender identity.
“California is about to move our state forward, at a time where states like Kansas, North Carolina and even a judge in Texas are politicizing bathrooms,” Ting said. The bill will now head to Gov. Jerry Brown, who will presumably sign it after supporting the 2013 student law.
California’s move towards a more progressive bathroom attitude came on the same day that a federal judge in Texas blocked the Obama administration’s guidance on transgender students. The guidance, which says transgender students must be allowed to use a bathroom consistent with their gender identity, was blocked by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, who deemed it a form of federal overreach.
Related: Federal judge blocks Obama administration’s transgender guidance
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