The new guidelines issued yesterday by the state attorney general and the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination are aimed at helping businesses know how to handle people who are abusing the transgender rights law and wrongfully using bathrooms and changing areas, the agencies said.

“If an employee of a public accommodation has reasonable grounds to believe that a person, regardless of gender identity, is engaged in improper or unlawful conduct … the employee may address the situation through whatever means the business typically addresses misconduct by a patron, including asking the patron to leave, or calling security or law enforcement,” Maura Healey’s office wrote.

“If a person asserts gender identity to access a sex-segregated facility for the sole purpose of engaging in unlawful conduct, that person may properly be referred to law enforcement.”

However, Healey warns that businesses could run afoul of the law if they call the cops simply to harass a transgendered person. They could also be in trouble if they ask for proof.

Both sets of rules bar employees and businesses from asking for identification that could prove a person’s gender. Instead, businesses are instructed that a person’s gender is a deeply held identity.

“Gender identity refers to a person’s internal sense of their own gender and its expression,” the MCAD guidelines state.

They further state: “In the limited circumstances where it is necessary, an individual’s gender identity may be demonstrated by any evidence that the gender identity is sincerely held as a part of the person’s core identity.”

Jon Hurst, with the Massachusetts Retailers Association, welcomed the guidelines, saying, “If there are going to be requirements in place there is an obligation to give businesses guidance, especially to small businesses who don’t have legal counsel, about how they should be complying with the new laws.”

Hurst said he hasn’t heard complaints from any of his members, but he said the biggest impact will likely be on gymnasiums and places with communal changing rooms.

James Morton, president of the YMCA of Greater Boston, said in a statement, “In keeping with our commitment to diversity and inclusion, and to ensuring that everyone is welcomed at the Y, we give all individuals the opportunity to choose the accommodations consistent with their gender identity.”