SACRAMENTO (AP) — California’s lower legislative chamber has passed a bill to require single-person public restrooms to be gender neutral.
The Assembly’s 52-18 vote Monday came as North Carolina and the federal government sued each other over that state’s law requiring transgender people to use the restroom matching the sex on their birth certificate.
The law also limits discrimination protections for LGBT people. The U.S. Justice Department said last week that North Carolina’s law violates civil rights.
California Assemblyman Phil Ting of San Francisco aims to help transgender people, caregivers and parents with AB1732.
Republican Assemblyman James Gallagher of Plumas Lake says men’s messy habits, including what he calls “pee seats,” will inconvenience many more people than the bill would help. Gallagher says the bill applies too broadly.
Ting, a Democrat, says people should clean up after themselves.
