A 2016 bulletin had said agencies in GSA space must allow individuals to use restrooms and related areas consistent with their gender identity, self-assigned or otherwise. Image: addkm/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe GSA has moved to revoke a 2016 policy bulletin saying that agencies in facilities under its authority must not discriminate on the basis of gender identity in “services, privileges, accommodations, and activities provided on the property” such as restrooms.
A May 9 Federal Register notice says that policy is inconsistent with a Trump administration executive order directing agencies to end all policies “that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology” which the order defines as “the belief that there are genders disconnected from the sex that one is assigned at birth.”
“Additionally, the referenced bulletin is inconsistent with E.O. 14168 in that it not only considers Title VII and Title IV to protect gender identity, but it also cites support in several cases issued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission upholding the use of restrooms based on gender identity,” the notice says.
“Therefore, the bulletin must be rescinded to bring GSA-controlled buildings into alignment with the principles of E.O. 14168 declaring that it is the Policy of the United States to recognize only two sexes, male and female,” it says.
The 2016 bulletin had cited interpretations of federal civil rights laws against sex-based discrimination in other contexts as also prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity, including transgender status. It said that agencies in GSA space “must allow individuals to use restroom facilities and related areas consistent with their gender identity . . . self-identification of gender identity by any individual is sufficient to establish which restroom or other single-sex facilities should be used.”
It further had said that transgender individuals did not have to be undergoing or have completed any medical procedure, nor could they be required to show proof of surgery to be treated in accordance with their gender identity and obtain access to the restroom corresponding with their gender identity.
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