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THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT — Multnomah County, encompassing the entire city of Portland, Oregon, is the first county in the nation to require gender-neutral, single-occupancy bathrooms in all new county financed construction projects. The county also plans to begin reverting existing county bathrooms to gender-neutral when possible.

Multnomah County Board Chairman Jeff Cogen told The Oregonian: “There is no doubt that there will be people who will be opposed to this. But for us, it’s all about equity and fairness.” Cogen issued an executive order to put this policy into effect.

Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center’s Barbara McCullough-Jones: Folks who aren’t faced with gender issues don’t think twice about which stall they’ll walk into to use the bathroom. For others, unfortunately, just the opposite is true. I can tell you honestly that the county’s move is a really important one, and we are really glad to see things come to this point.”

Next door in Washington County, the Tigard-Tualatin School District recently changed their students rights policy to ensure equal facilities for all students. This will include the conversion of at least one restroom to gender neutral at all middle and high schools. Some locker rooms are included in the conversion as well.

Transgender advocate groups, such as Portland, Oregon’s TransActive, are insisting the district push it down to elementary level as well, citing a recent lawsuit in Colorado that favored a transgender child.

More about the Colorado ruling here: https://lexiecannes.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/schools-barring-of-trans-child-from-girls-bathroom-ruled-discriminatory/

Sources for this article:

Multnomah County becomes one of first in nation to require gender-neutral bathrooms for transgender users | OregonLive.com.

Tigard-Tualatin schools to have unisex bathrooms, prompted by transgender students’ concerns | OregonLive.com.

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THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT is associated with Wipe Out Transphobia: http://www.wipeouttransphobia.com/

Read Lexie Cannes on The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/courtney-odonnell/

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Categories: Discrimination, Equality, Civil Rights, Policy, Administrative, Transgender, Transsexual, Trans