Week of February 24, 2020
Gender neutrality has been a big topic in the news lately. This week mainly featured gender-neutral parenting styles, bills about gender-neutral bathrooms and identification cards, and student advocacy groups pushing for more gender-neutral bathrooms at their schools.
Celebrities were featured in the news this week for embracing gender-neutral parenting styles. Canadian artist, Grimes briefly discussed that her baby with Elon Musk will “decide their fate and identity” when it comes to their baby’s gender. Actress and dancer, Jenna Dewan showed off her gender-neutral nursery this week. Gender-neutral nurseries have been extremely trendy lately with Pinterest’s 2020 trend analysis reporting a 527% increase in unisex nurseries. Parents have had an increasing interest in gender-neutral parenting styles with one mother creating a gender-neutral children’s clothing line after noticing how clothing was limiting her kids’ gender expression. These trends of gender neutral options for children have made their way into the legislature. A new California bill would require retail department stores with 500 or more employees to have a gender-neutral floor space inside their stores. This bill would also eliminate separating toys by boy and girl aisles, providing a gender-neutral toy selection.
Laws about gender-neutral bathrooms and identification cards were an important subject in this week’s news cycle. Lawmakers in Illinois and Maryland both proposed bills that would convert single-occupant restrooms into gender-neutral ones. Another bill was proposed that requires state building codes to provide changing tables in both the men’s and women’s restrooms or a table in a gender-neutral or family restroom. Lord Lucas made multiple headlines regarding his distaste for gender-neutral bathrooms during a speech he made at the House of Lords this week. He claimed that gender-neutral bathrooms are unsafe for women and should not be installed. An article covering this story mentions that there is no link between transgender people’s access to public restrooms and crime that happens in bathrooms. This is according to a 2018 study at UCLA’s School of Law.
A new bill was introduced this week in which an “X” gender marker for would be added to U.S. passports as a third option. Selecting the option would be “self attested” meaning that people would not need to provide a doctor’s note or their state IDs in order to use the “X” option. Meanwhile, the Virginia House of Delegates passed a law requiring the DMV to provide a nonbinary option on driver’s license applications.
Student associations are also pushing for more friendly public spaces for transgender and nonbinary people. Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey is following a push made back in 2017 by their Student Government Association to install more gender-neutral bathrooms. Another student organization at Eastern Illinois University, EUI Pride, pushed for more gender-neutral bathrooms on campus, claiming that current ones were located in inconvenient spaces, such as basements. The Queer Pride Graduate Student Association at the Northwestern’s Graduate School are also currently working providing more “all-gender restrooms”. Andrea Marr, from Horndean Technology College, was awarded the Educator Champion Award from the “Just Like Us” charity for their efforts to support the LGBTQ+ community, such as introducing gender-neutral toilets and changing rooms.