Last year, public schools throughout the state began allowing students to use the bathroom of their chosen gender rather than the one they were assigned at birth. Fast forward to 2015 and the City of West Hollywood (WeHo for short) has taken the gist of that policy one step further: banning the use of gendered bathroom signs in businesses located within city limits.
“I know for a number of transgender people that having to choose whether to go into the male or female restroom is not as easy as it can be for non-transgender people,” West Hollywood Councilwoman Abbe Land said to the Los Angeles Times. “It’s all about access and equality.”
WeHo has long been at the forefront of progressive policy when it comes to gender identity. As one of the first cities in the nation to legalize gay marriage and with over one third of its population identifying as LGBTQ, it is easy to see why the policy was passed unanimously by the City Council.
WeHo is not the first in the nation to adopt the policy, and it follows a declaration made by the University of California last year that the college system would begin converting single-stall restrooms into genderless facilities. Businesses within city limits have 60 days from January 15 to comply with the law.
Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times.