Federal Agencies Must Allow Trans Individuals Access to Bathrooms of Their Choosing

This story has been updated with a comment from the AFGE president. 

Federal agencies must allow transgender individuals to use whatever bathroom they prefer, according to a new policy issued by the Obama administration last week.

The announcement came just days before a federal court on Monday blocked previous administration guidance requiring any public school system receiving federal funds to allow students to use whichever bathroom aligns with their gender identity. The new policy was posted as a bulletin to the Federal Management Regulation, and will apply to all federal facilities within the General Services Administration’s purview.

“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,” GSA Administrator Denise Turner-Roth wrote in an explanation in the Federal Register.

GSA cited previous memoranda issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Justice Department, Office of Personnel Management and the Education Department that prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender identity in justifying its new rule. Federal agencies cannot discriminate against transgender individuals in furnishing the “services, privileges, accommodations and activities” provided at their facilities.

Denying people equal access to a bathroom based on their gender identity is discriminatory, Turner-Roth said, citing previous Obama administration guidance. Agencies cannot restrict transgendered employees’ restroom access to single-user facilities, but they can create single-user bathrooms than anyone can use. They are also cannot condition bathroom access to “proof” of gender identity or sex-reassignment surgery. 

Federal employee groups lauded the new policy.

“The federal government has torn down another wall of bigotry by rejecting discrimination against employees based on their gender identity,” said J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees. “Every person should be able to go to the bathroom that corresponds to their gender -- and it’s up to each person to make that determination.”