Cathedral City discussing gender-neutral bathrooms

Cathedral City leaders are looking at whether their city should be the first in the Coachella Valley to mandate gender-neutral public restrooms.

The idea comes from Thomi Clinton, a Coachella Valley transgender woman and human rights activist who will present the idea to council members during a meeting Wednesday.

"I just think gender-neutral bathrooms accommodate a wide spectrum of people, not only transgender people," Clinton said.

Clinton would like to see more single-stall public restrooms that aren't designated as being for men or women, but she is not going to recommend a specific ordinance.

If Cathedral City officials move forward with the idea, the city would join a growing trend seen in much bigger and better known communities.

One model that city could follow is the one adopted in West Hollywood, which since January has required single-stall bathrooms be labeled gender neutral. The policy doesn't apply to bathrooms with multiple stalls.

"I think that may be the way bathrooms should be moving in the future," said Councilman Shelley Kaplan, who is asking his colleagues to discuss the idea.

Austin, Philadelphia and Washington are among the cities that have enacted gender-neutral bathroom rules in recent years.

At least 150 universities also have created gender-neutral bathrooms, said Sasha Buchert, staff attorney for the San Francisco-based Transgender Law Center.

"It's definitely a huge improvement for transgender and gender-nonconforming people who face a lot of stigma when they're using restrooms," Buchert told The Desert Sun Friday.

"It creates a safe space for them."

Clinton is reaching out to other valley cities hoping they'll also review their rules. But Cathedral City is the first council to take up the issue.

In Desert Hot Springs, Councilwoman Jan Pye has asked the planning commission to start looking a possible city ordinance.

And when SunLine Transit Agency officials built the new administrative building in Thousand Palms, officials opted for unisex restrooms for the staff. The public restrooms are still designated for men and woman.

Kaplan suggested Cathedral City could create an ordinance only applying to new construction, and he conceded there could be questions over how businesses will comply.

"It all depends on how the ordinance is written or presented," he said. "If the city wants to go ahead with an ordinance, I think it may have some financial implications for businesses, so there might be some concerns from a business perspective."

Buchert said single-stall policies also benefit people who prefer privacy in the bathroom, including people caring for children or the elderly, and the disabled.

Instead of push back from the business community, Buchert said it's more common for businesses to embrace the change, pointing to when Starbucks switched to gender-neutral restrooms in its Washington coffee shops.

"The response has been overwhelmingly favorable," she said.

Cathedral City Mayor Pro Tem Greg Pettis was open to the idea.

But he pointed out that the city can't require businesses to retrofit their bathrooms unless the city pays the costs, and he doesn't see the city doing that.

Clinton said problems of embarrassment, confusion and violence against transgender people using public restrooms have created a need for more gender-neutral spaces.

She said she doesn't want to force businesses to take on major remodeling efforts, but the policy could be good for new buildings.

"It's really no enormous cost to have separate little bathrooms where people have their own personal space," Clinton said.

Reach Barrett Newkirk at (760)778-4767, barrett.newkirk@desertsun.com or on Twitter @barrettnewkirk.