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Illinois May Require Gender-Neutral Single-Occupancy Restrooms

The Illinois General Assembly is considering a measure to require gender-neutral single-occupancy restrooms in public accommodations,
Jeffrey Beall
/
Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The Illinois General Assembly is considering a measure to require gender-neutral single-occupancy restrooms in public accommodations,

Hear the story here.

Illinois could become the third state in the nation to require that single restrooms in offices, restaurants and other public places be gender-neutral.

Similar laws are in place in California and Vermont.

“Right now the  Illinois Plumbing Code requires that if you have a single-occupancy restroom it be gendered. That doesn’t make sense anymore,’’ said Mike Ziri of qEuality Illinois, which lobbied for the change.

“Yes, it’s to affirm transgender individuals,  but it also affirms parents with opposite sex children who may need to use one of these single occupancy restrooms. It affirms older adult individuals who may have a caregiver.”  

Copyright 2019 NPR Illinois | 91.9 UIS

Maureen Foertsch McKinney is the NPR Illinois News Editor and a lead editor of Illinois Issues' feature articles, working with freelance writers, and is curator of the Equity blog. Maureen joined the staff in 1998 as projects editor. Previously, she worked at three Illinois daily newspapers, most recently the suburban Chicago-based Daily Herald, where she served stints as an education reporter and copy editor. She graduated in 1985 with a bachelor's in journalism. She also has a master's degree in English from the University of Illinois at Springfield.
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