New Laws Are Making Public Bathrooms Safer for Transgender People

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Single-occupancy bathrooms in the gay-friendly city of West Hollywood will soon have to be gender-neutral.



January 14, 2015 By Nicole Pasulka

Staff Writer Nicole Pasulka has written for Mother Jones, BuzzFeed, The Believer, and New York Observer. She lives in New York City.


Starting this week, businesses in West Hollywood, California, have 60 days to get rid of the men's and women's signs on the doors of single-occupancy bathrooms and make those places gender-neutral.

Bathroom rules are changing thanks to a law passed last year by the City Council of West Hollywood, an independent municipality in the city of Los Angeles that has a population of about 34,000 and is a hub for gay life.

Why is it a big deal to have gender-neutral—meaning neither male nor female—bathrooms? Many transgender people say that they frequently experience difficulty or downright harassment when they try to use public restrooms. A study of trans people in Washington, D.C., found that nearly 70 percent had been verbally harassed when using a public bathroom. Of the people surveyed, 18 percent had been denied restroom access, and almost 10 percent were victims of physical violence—meaning they were forcibly removed, hit, kicked, or cornered—in public bathrooms.

Transgender people have also been reported to the police for using the bathrooms that correspond to their gender identities. In Houston, Tyjanae Moore was arrested for using the women's restroom in a library, even though the city's nondiscrimination policy specified that trans people can use the bathrooms that match their gender identities. An Idaho transgender woman named Ally Robledo was charged with trespassing after using the women's room in a grocery store. Robledo pointed out that because she identifies and lives as a woman, she doesn't feel safe using the men's bathroom.

FULL story at link.