By Maureen Foertsch McKinney, NPR
Illinois could become the third state in the nation to require that single restrooms in offices, restaurants and other public places be gender-neutral.
Similar laws are in place in California and Vermont.
“Right now the Illinois Plumbing Code requires that if you have a single-occupancy restroom it be gendered. That doesn’t make sense anymore,’’ said Mike Ziri of Equality Illinois, which lobbied for the change.
“Yes, it’s to affirm transgender individuals, but it also affirms parents with opposite sex children who may need to use one of these single occupancy restrooms. It affirms older adult individuals who may have a caregiver.”
This article originally appeared in NPR.
