The Obama administration is set to unveil a new regulation this week that will expand transgender people’s access to restrooms consistent with their “gender identity” to thousands of federal buildings and facilities across the country — including prisons.
Buzzfeed News obtained on Monday a draft of a notice being circulated to various federal agencies by the General Services Administration (a independent agency in charge of government facilities) before being officially published in the Federal Register later this week.
According to the notice, the upcoming regulation will not only apply to the roughly 9,200 buildings operated by the General Services Administration (GSA) and 1 million federal civilians employees working in these space— including US courthouses, post offices, Social Security buildings and prisons — but, crucially, to anyone entering these facilities, be they visitors or random members of the public.
Not all federally operated buildings are concerned, however. Ironically, because they fall outside of GSA’s purview, the White House, Capitol building and national parks will not be affected. The bulletin circulated by GSA Administrator Denise Turner Roth to agency heads about the rule states that “federal agencies occupying space under the jurisdiction, custody, or control of GSA must allow individuals to use restroom facilities and related areas consistent with their gender identity.” They also cannot be restricted to single-occupancy restrooms, according to Buzzfeed.
A White House spokesman has made clear in the past, however, that visitors and staffers already have the option to use whichever bathroom they want, regardless of their sex at birth, in keeping with the administration’s existing policies — including the Executive Office’s newly revamped gender-neutral bathroom.
This new guideline is the latest in a series of symbolic steps taken by the federal government since the spring to spotlight transgender issues, and strengthen civil right protections for transgender people. It comes only three months after the White House issued a legal guidance mandating access to bathroom based on students’ gender identity — a controversial move that plunged the nation into a heated debate over the government’s right to police privacy in order to accommodate transgender individuals, who make only 0.6 percent of the adult population according to new estimates.
Several state legislatures have challenged this directive, suing the Obama administration for overreaching in its interpretation of federal bans on sex discrimination and considering laws that would restrict public restroom access for trans people to those based on their biological sex.
Officials in Arizona, Texas, Florida and Kentucky have backed similar measures, citing the need to protect their constituents against sexual predators.