A city in Florida is converting over 100 of its public restrooms in all-gender to show “support” for the transgender youth living there.
St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch signed an executive order September 1, converting its single-occupancy, family restrooms to “all-gender.”
Signs indicating male or female will be replaced with all-gender restrooms by March 2024.
“We’re eliminating gender identity restrictions and making them all gender so trans individuals feel safe using individual facilities,” the city’s LGBTQ+ “Liason” Jim Nixon said.
According to Nixon, St. Petersburg switched its single-use bathrooms to gender neutral in 2017.
“We just felt like this was a good opportunity to make that change since we had made it here in City Hall,” Nixon said. “It was just an opportunity that we had seen this becoming a bigger issue.”
St. Petersburg ranked high for the 10th consecutive year on the Human Rights Campaign’s annual Municipal Equality Index, a measure that ranks cities based on their LGBTQ+ support.
“It [lets our] transgender siblings … know there are facilities available that they’re safer to use,” Nixon said. “With everything that’s happening and the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community … from the state, we’re always looking at opportunities to make St. Pete a safe city for all of our residents.”
From Fox News:
City-owned facilities, including theaters and sporting venues, have a six-month grace period to convert their single-use bathrooms to meet the new rule. St. Petersburg officials did not immediately response to a request for comment.
