Current Situation: Transgender individuals face violence, discrimination, and lack of access to essential resources at rates far exceeding other members of the community. Rolling back federal protections for individuals of transgender experience puts the most vulnerable members of the LGBTQ community more deeply in danger. Without laws and protections in place at the federal and state level, the transgender community remains our most vulnerable and underserved community.

Proposed Language: A Gender Inclusive Bathroom Ordinance on Bainbridge Island would be modeled after successful ordinances passed in Seattle, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia. It would help achieve greater restroom access for transgender and gender diverse individuals. All-gender restrooms are facilities that anyone can use regardless of gender. They benefit many people, including transgender and gender diverse individuals, people who require assistance of caregiver of a different gender, and parents with children of a different gender.

Key aspects of an ordinance for our community would include:

• The ordinance applies to existing and newly-built facilities, as well as public places on Bainbridge Island to include all existing and future single-stall bathrooms owned by all Island taxing districts. Place of public accommodation will include any place where the public can go and gather to include hotels, restaurants, bars, shops, and other retail establishments. It allows use of single occupant restrooms by any person, regardless of sex or gender identity, and prevents those restrooms from being restricted to a specific sex or gender identity. Single occupant restroom facilities without appropriate signage already in place will require new signs to be posted.

• The ordinance will reinforce an individual’s right to use the public restroom that best conforms to their chosen gender identity or expression.

• Enforcement and code violation can be reported via See Click Fix or a specific email address. Recommend impacted bathroom owners be given 180 days to obtain correct signage. Seattle created a temporary sign that could be downloaded and posted, but no exemptions beyond the 180 days were allowed: https://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/CivilRights/OCR-AllGenderPostcard.pdf

• Kitsap Pride, Bainbridge Island Pride, Equal Rights Washington, and the Ingersoll Gender Center all support this effort. Further, these organizations will support with community outreach and awareness and public comment as to the necessity of this ordinance.