{"id":3206,"date":"2016-03-17T13:54:40","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T20:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/?p=3206"},"modified":"2020-02-16T15:28:27","modified_gmt":"2020-02-16T22:28:27","slug":"gender-neutral-bathrooms-a-legal-requirement-or-will-your-church-be-exempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2016\/03\/17\/gender-neutral-bathrooms-a-legal-requirement-or-will-your-church-be-exempt\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender neutral bathrooms: a legal requirement, or will your church be\u00a0exempt?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post written by Holly Whitman and is American-centric.\u00a0<\/em>Holly is a freelance writer and journalist, originally from the UK but now based in Washington DC. You can find her on Twitter at @hollykwhitman<\/a> and more of her writing on her blog, Only Slightly Biased<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>To submit a guest post, email ourthoughts@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

For the longest time, the most pressing issue about public restrooms was the mere fact that there often\u00a0weren’t enough of them. This is especially true at concert and stadium venues, where the lines can\u00a0stretch several hundred feet. Now, with the emergence of people identifying as transgender,\u00a0the issue of restroom accommodation is taking on a whole new spin.<\/p>\n

Will it become a legal requirement<\/a> for a public building to require a men’s bathroom, a women’s\u00a0bathroom and a non-gender-specific bathroom? And what about churches? Will they be required to\u00a0expand their restroom facilities even if there is little chance of transgender members becoming a part of\u00a0their community? Could this all be a case of political correctness run amuck? Clearly, there are a lot of\u00a0factors to sort through when it comes to the bathroom question.<\/p>\n

Changes at the local level<\/h2>\n

According to the website Refuge Restooms<\/a>, there are currently 4,500 gender-neutral bathrooms across\u00a0the country. Various city councils and state legislatures are also moving towards making these types of\u00a0accommodations. In places like restaurants or office buildings, the fix can be easy. It simply means\u00a0removing the \u201cMale\u201d or \u201cFemale\u201d sign from the door. After that, the bathroom can be occupied (and\u00a0locked from within!) by anyone of any gender.<\/p>\n

So far, Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Austin and West Hollywood have all established gender-neutral\u00a0ordinances. Chicago could become the next, and the largest, metropolitan area to enact this type of\u00a0measure.<\/p>\n

Proactive approach<\/h2>\n

Many businesses are taking the proactive approach. Before the legal questions about bathrooms become\u00a0an issue, they are going ahead and making their facilities gender-neutral. In other words, they are\u00a0avoiding the possible legal entanglements that could occur if an individual brings a discrimination suit.\u00a0This requires many companies to review their current policies<\/a> when it comes to human resource\u00a0regulations.<\/p>\n

The issue with schools and churches<\/h2>\n

The issues with schools and churches are another matter. A recent story that gained national exposure<\/a>\u00a0concerned the Denver-based family of a six-year-old who was born a boy but identifies as a girl. The\u00a0school allowed him to use a clinic bathroom as opposed to the designated \u201cgirl\u2019s room.\u201d Although accommodations were made, the family opted to move forward with a complaint filed with the Colorado\u00a0Civil Rights Office. This is prompting a further review and response from the school district, and it could\u00a0mean everyone ends up in court.<\/p>\n

In churches across the country, it might come down to the issue of individual institutions and their\u00a0practices. And this is where things get complex. It has always been accepted that, when it comes to\u00a0churches, the government will take a \u201chands-off\u201d policy with regard to exclusion based on biblical tenets\u00a0of that particular church. Some outsiders may view this as discrimination, while others see this as simply\u00a0following the practices of their faith. In all likelihood, a church’s right to restrict facilities would remain\u00a0intact. In other words, any type of civil suit brought against a church would probably fail. Again, it\u00a0becomes an issue between public and private institutions.<\/p>\n

The wait-and-see approach<\/h2>\n

Many churches might adopt the \u201cwait-and-see\u201d approach to this situation. If a member comes forward,\u00a0identifies as transgender, and makes a request for accommodations, then the church can consider their\u00a0request on a case-by-case basis. It might just be that this would never become an issue for most places\u00a0of worship. One thing is for sure: The issue of restrooms just got a lot more involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post written by Holly Whitman and is American-centric.\u00a0Holly is a freelance writer and journalist, originally from … Continue reading Gender neutral bathrooms: a legal requirement, or will your church be\u00a0exempt?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":174,"featured_media":3207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lgbtq"],"yoast_head":"\nGender neutral bathrooms: a legal requirement, or will your church be\u00a0exempt?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2016\/03\/17\/gender-neutral-bathrooms-a-legal-requirement-or-will-your-church-be-exempt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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