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Board passes ordinance requiring single-user restrooms be designated all-gender in businesses and city buildings
Summary
Supervisors adopted an ordinance that requires businesses and places of public accommodation to designate single-user restroom facilities as all-gender and directs the Department of Building Inspection to enforce signage requirements; the rule also applies to city-owned or leased buildings.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on April 5 passed an ordinance requiring that single-occupancy restrooms in businesses, places of public accommodation and city-owned or leased buildings be identified as all-gender. The measure directs the Department of Building Inspection to enforce signage requirements and requires at least one all-gender restroom on each floor of new or extensively renovated city buildings.
Sponsor Supervisor Mark Farrell (cosponsors noted on the floor) described the ordinance as a public-safety and dignity measure that benefits transgender people, parents with children of a different gender, seniors and people with disabilities. Supervisor Farrell and others cited recent state-level bills and actions elsewhere around the country as part of the context for the local action.
The ordinance allows, but does not require, multi-stall restrooms to be converted to all-gender facilities and includes an enforcement mechanism through the Human Rights Commission and building-inspection processes. Supporters said the measure returns San Francisco to an inclusive standard and noted outreach with the Transgender Law Center and disability and senior advocates.
The board passed the ordinance unanimously on first reading.
