On
May 22nd, 2014, the Somerville Board of Aldermen voted unanimously
to amend Somerville ’s
human rights ordinance to include gender identity as a protected class. This
got a lot of people thinking about what we can do to make Somerville safer and more welcoming to
transgender people. One easy thing to do is to change single-stall bathrooms
into gender neutral bathrooms. Transgender people often feel unsafe using
multi-stall restrooms, where they may be misgendered and encounter verbal or
physical abuse. Having a single stall, gender neutral bathroom means that they
can use the bathroom safely, and no one will question their right to use that
bathroom.
I interviewed Jess Brasil, the Operations Manager at Diesel Café, Bloc 11 Café, and Forge Baking Company about Diesel Café’s gender neutral bathrooms.
