BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND HOUSING Senator Jim Beall, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular Bill No: AB 1732 Hearing Date: 6/21/2016 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Author: |Ting | |----------+------------------------------------------------------| |Version: |4/11/2016 | ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes | ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Consultant|Sarah Carvill | |: | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUBJECT: Single-user restrooms DIGEST: This bill requires that all single-user restroom facilities in businesses, places of public accommodation, and state and local government agencies be identified as all-gender facilities. ANALYSIS: Existing law: 1)Requires every public agency that conducts an establishment serving or open to the public and equipped with restrooms intended for public use to make those restrooms available to the public free of cost or charge. 2)Requires publicly and privately owned sports and entertainment arenas, stadiums, community and convention halls, specialty event centers, amusement facilities, and ski resorts to be equipped with sufficient temporary or permanent restrooms to meet the needs of the public at peak hours. For facilities owned or occupied by the state, the State Building Standards Commission must adopt standards to enforce this requirement. For other facilities, the Office of the State Architect must adopt standards. Standards must conform to the State Plumbing Code and be published in the State Building Standards Code. 3)Specifies, by regulation, formulas for determining the number of restrooms that must be made available in public and private AB 1732 (Ting) Page 2 of ? facilities based on the number of occupants the facility was designed to accommodate. This bill: 1)Requires that, beginning March 1, 2017, all single-user toilet facilities in business establishments, places of public accommodation, or state or local government agencies be identified as all-gender facilities and designated for use by single occupants, families, and people who require assistance. 2)Defines "single-user toilet facilities" as those with no more than one water closet and one urinal that have a locking mechanism controlled by the user. 3)Authorizes inspectors, building officials, and other local officials responsible for code enforcement to check businesses and places of public accommodation for compliance with this requirement as part of their inspections. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. Current law requires public and private facilities to maintain a sufficient number of restrooms to meet the needs of the public. According to the author, however, gender-based restroom restrictions create problems of convenience, fairness, and safety for countless individuals and undermine the applicability and intent of current law. The author emphasizes that this burden is disproportionately experienced by the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, women, and parents or caretakers of dependents of a different gender. The author states that the goal of this bill is to eliminate the fears and frustration that many people experience in restrooms on a daily basis by designating single-user bathrooms as "all gender." 2)Scope. This bill applies to restroom facilities with one toilet and/or urinal and one sink, with a door that the user can lock. These restrooms accommodate one user, and possibly one caregiver, at a time. The debate over how transgender individuals should be accommodated in multiuser restrooms is currently a major national policy issue, particularly with AB 1732 (Ting) Page 3 of ? respect to school settings, so it is important to be clear that this bill does not apply to bathrooms with multiple stalls that can be used by multiple individuals at one time. Additionally, this bill does not require that single-user restrooms be installed or constructed where none currently exist. As the author states, "Compliance with the bill is a matter of adjusting a sign on a restroom door." The bill gives inspectors the authority to enforce this requirement, but it does not require them to do so. 3)Keeping people safe. The most obvious benefit of this bill is that it protects transgender and gender non-conforming individuals from harassment and violence. Using a public restroom is inherently risky for these individuals: In a 2013 survey of people who identify as transgender or gender non-conforming, 70% of respondents reported being denied access to or verbally harassed or physically assaulted in public restrooms. By removing "male" and "female" designations from single-user restrooms, this bill would separate the routine, daily act of using public bathrooms from the personal matter of defining and declaring one's gender identity, allowing transgender and gender non-conforming people to maintain their privacy - and, by extension, their safety. While this bill does not guarantee that all-gender bathrooms will be available in all cases, it does de-gender public facilities where the barriers to doing so are lowest. 4)Supporting caregivers - and evening out the lines. Transgender and gender non-conforming people are not the only groups that benefit from de-gendering single-user bathrooms. Gender-restricted bathrooms pose a dilemma for parents with differently gendered children, as well as for other caregivers assisting people of a different gender. Supporters of this bill note that people in this situation often have no choice but to break a social norm. Making single-occupancy restrooms available to all genders makes public bathrooms more accessible to families, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. The author notes that it also helps address the problem of inadequate facilities for women - and the resultant, widely observed disparity in wait times for men's and women's restrooms. 5)No new signage regulations required. The California Building Code (CBC) requires only that restroom doors be marked with one of three geometric symbols to indicate whether they are AB 1732 (Ting) Page 4 of ? intended for use by men, women, or all genders. Most of the information typically displayed on restroom signs -including the side-by-side male and female figures used to denote unisex facilities - exceeds these requirements. Consequently, no adjustments to the CBC are necessary for implementation of this bill. 6)Other cities and states. If passed, this bill would be the first of its kind to be adopted at the state level; however, it is not without precedent. Several cities have turned to single-user bathrooms as a means of promoting equality for the transgender community and increasing bathroom accessibility across the board. Austin, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. have adopted provisions requiring single-occupancy bathrooms to be labeled for all-gender use. In California, the city of West Hollywood has mandated gender-nonspecific single-user bathrooms since 2014, and San Francisco is currently considering a similar measure. A January 2016 article in Time magazine notes that more than 150 U.S. colleges and universities have also instituted such policies, including the entire University of California system. The United States Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has listed gender nonspecific single-occupancy restrooms as a best practice in the workplace since 2015. Assembly Votes: Floor: 55-19 Appr: 11-4 B. & P.: 14-0 FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on Wednesday, June 15, 2016.) SUPPORT: California NOW (co-sponsor) AB 1732 (Ting) Page 5 of ? Equality California (co-sponsor) Transgender Law Center (co-sponsor) American Academy of Pediatrics American Civil Liberties Union Anti-Defamation League City of West Hollywood HP Inc. National Association of Social Workers PayPal SacLEGAL Salesforce San Francisco Unified School District San Mateo County Board of Supervisors Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors The Secular Coalition for California OPPOSITION: None received -- END --