NORRISTOWN >> Montgomery County commissioners weighed in Thursday, May 19, on the ongoing debate over the use of public restrooms by transgender individuals.
The county currently has no policy specific to the use of bathrooms in county buildings, said Commissioners’ Chairman Josh Shapiro, but it may be taken into consideration for future projects.
“In the Health Department, we have been looking at our clinic facilities and trying to identify bathrooms that could be made gender neutral,” said Commissioner Val Arkoosh, who also serves as the interim medical director of the county Health Department.
The conversation came as a reporter asked after the Thursday meeting of the commissioners about whether the county had looked into any specific policies relating to the hot button issue. Shapiro and Arkoosh each pointed out ways the county would look into making facilities and government more gender-neutral.
“That is something we have begun to look at,” Shapiro said, adding that the new courthouse and annex renovations and constructions may work in gender-neutral bathrooms. “Certainly this is something that is going to be made part of the discussion and part of the plans, architecturally and what have you, as these new facilities are laid out.”
Not all commissioners agreed, however, that the matter was one that required the county’s attention.
Commissioner Joe Gale, the lone Republican on the board, said he disagreed with the Obama administration’s directive that all public schools should provide appropriate bathrooms for transgender students. The directive was issued last Friday.
“With all the problems in this world, with ISIS and the economy and unemployment, to make that a national discussion just concerns me and I am opposed to the effort of the federal government making that a mandate,” Gale said.
Gale went on, “For me, I don’t understand the concept. For hundreds of years we have had a men’s room and a women’s room and to me, to create additional bathrooms and if we have new construction to add a third bathroom, the whole concept is not in line with common sense and the practice that has been for hundreds of years.”
The county does include an anti-discrimination ordinance in its employee handbook that prevents discrimination based on gender identity. The language, updated in 2012 to include gender identity, is in the handbook as follows:
“Conduct that threatens, intimidates, or coerces another employee, a supervisor, or a member of the public will not be tolerated. This prohibition includes all acts of harassment, including harassment that is based on an individual’s sex, race, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.”
