Feds Now Trying to Force Employers Nationwide to Allow Transgender People to Use Opposite-Sex Bathrooms [+video]
The federal government is strongly urging employers to give transgender employees access to bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity, marking a new policy front in the fast-moving campaign for transgender equality.
“… It is essential for employees to be able to work in a manner consistent with how they live the rest of their daily lives, based on their gender identity,” the Occupational Safety and Health Administration wrote in a four-page Guide to Restroom Access for Transgender Workers posted last week on the agency’s Web site.
[Listen to this interview with an ex-transgender man who went through surgery and has strong views on the transgender debate]
The guide is explicit that restroom access for transgender workers is both a civil rights issue and a health and safety one.
“Restricting employees to using only restrooms that are not consistent with their gender identity, or segregating them from other workers by requiring them to use gender-neutral or other specific restrooms, singles those employees out and may make them fear for their physical safety,” OSHA, an arm of the Labor Department wrote, calling its guidance “Best Practices” for employers throughout the country.
In some workplaces, “questions can arise… about which facilities certain employees can use,” OSHA said, then explained that someone’s “internal gender identity” may be different from the sex they were assigned at birth. “A person who identifies as a man should be permitted to use men’s bathrooms, and a person who identifies as a woman should be permitted to use women’s restrooms.” (Read more from “Feds: Transgender People Should Use Bathroom of Gender They Identify As” HERE)
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