Heather Anderson: Dealing with transgender issues in the workplace
Heather G. Anderson, Knoxville News Sentinel, August 17, 2013 at 1 p.m.

Earlier this year, the District of Columbia announced it will begin enforcing a 2006 regulation prohibiting single occupancy public restrooms from being labeled as "men" or "women."

Under that regulation, public spaces that fail to label single stall restrooms as gender neutral may face a fine.

The Office of Human Rights in Washington, D.C., pressed for the regulation after a study revealed "transgender people experienced significant problems with public bathroom facilities."

The city of Philadelphia requires new or renovated city-owned buildings provide gender-neutral restrooms in addition to traditionally marked restrooms.

Employers subject to the Tennessee Human Rights Act (applies to companies with eight or more employees) and/or the federal law known as Title VII (applies to companies with 15 or more workers) may likely deal with a transgender employee in the near future. A client of mine faced this issue last year — a male employee in a male-dominated workforce announced he would undergo a sex change operation.

Abundant questions followed from the company — should we refer to the employee as him or her? Which bathroom will he use before, during and after the operation? How will we deal with other employees' opinions of his actions and prevent claims of discrimination?

Gendered single-occupancy restrooms have never made sense to me.  I kind of get gendered multi-person restrooms, though I'd prefer if they went away too, but single-occupancy restrooms being gender-restricted makes NO sense.

Quote from: TiaNadiezja on August 25, 2013, 02:59:08 AM
Gendered single-occupancy restrooms have never made sense to me.  I kind of get gendered multi-person restrooms, though I'd prefer if they went away too, but single-occupancy restrooms being gender-restricted makes NO sense.

Yeah same. When I walk into a restroom and there's only one stall I'm kinda like "...uh... why is this a mens room when there's only one person who can use it at a time?"