California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a law requiring K-12 schools to provide gender-neutral bathrooms by July 2026.

The new law, Senate Bill 760, was among a series of laws signed by Newsom Saturday to expand protections for the state’s LGBTQ community.

“California is proud to have some of the most robust laws in the nation when it comes to protecting and supporting our LGBTQ+ community,” Newsom said in a statement.

Under the law, “each school district, county office of education, and charter school” would be required to have at least one gender-neutral bathroom on campus on or before July 1, 2026. The bathroom must be available for use during school hours and during school functions when students are present, the law states.

  • Octavio@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I went to a gender neutral restroom in California a couple months ago. Each toilet was in its own little private room, and there was a common area of sinks for hand washing. My only thought was that all public restrooms should be like that. Even apart from the equal access issue for LGBTQ+ people, why make one gender stand in line when there are unused facilities right next door.

    • Kage520@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      My biggest reason for wanting separate bathrooms is the propensity for women to squat and spray the seat. I know guys can make a mess too but usually the women’s restroom is dirtier than men’s. Also women’s restroom is more likely to have a line.

      But I’m sure building-wise it would be easier to just make one big bathroom so it should probably be that way, long as it’s big enough.

      • maporita@unilem.org
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        1 year ago

        In areas with lots of people it’s also about efficiency. Single stall toilets don’t work at a train station. A better option is to have two toilets … one with urinal and one without. Use whichever one you want.

        • Soggy@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          For efficiency just add a piss trough. It works great at ballparks and fairgrounds.

          • stown@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yeah I love bumping elbows with the guy next to me shaking his pud…

            Maybe put a funnel in the floor drain and see who’s Alpha enough to stare you in the eyes while pissing in your direction.

      • SamboT@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        How do you have experience with both men and women’s restrooms?

        Edit: ow the downvotes

        • LegionEris [she/her]@feddit.nl
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          1 year ago

          Idk about them, but my transition experience was the opposite. Neither is free of animals who were never taught how to operate their bodies in a public space, but my men’s room experiences were gross way more often than my women’s room experiences are. And now that I share a single toilet bathroom with men at work again, piss in weird places all the time. I understand that there are some places where the women’s room is routinely worse, but the average has been the opposite in my experience.

        • Saneless@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I used to work in a restaurant so I’ve had to clean both.

          Women are utterly disgusting. Men sometimes pee on the seats but women shit on the walls.

          I was stunned the first time. After having it happen once a week or so, you really start to wonder WTF is wrong with women

          • LegionEris [she/her]@feddit.nl
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            1 year ago

            Online discussions I’ve seen on this subject make it sound like it’s very location specific when one is routinely worse than the other. I switched public restrooms when I transitioned ~4.5 years ago. My experience has been that both peak at the same level of gross, but men’s restrooms were gross more often. A busy enough restroom will inevitably have a user who doesn’t know how to manage their body in public, but men’s restrooms always seemed just a little more casually dirty. So maybe you should have been wondering who the fuck among your coworkers kept blowing up the women’s room x_x Because it’s not a gender thing. You just had a serial wall shitter who happened to be a woman.

    • Saneless@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You mean you don’t have signs up in your house for your guests to direct them to entirely different bathrooms?

    • cricket97@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      because females don’t like going to the bathroom around men? Not really hard to understand

      • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Make all toilets more private than thin sheets of wood with an inch wide gap between them and it shouldn’t be a problem.

      • ikidd@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yah, this is not the men making this an issue. I couldn’t give a fuck if woman walks into the mens room, I’m here pissing and I’m not going to worry about anyone looking. Gods help you if it went the other way, you’d end up on a list.

      • jmeel@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m not sure why you’re receiving down votes. It’s simple as that.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      only if they’re single-occupant bathrooms. which. for schools… are usually not going to be the case. personally, that should be the solution. just rip out both bathrooms, install single occupant cells. nobody cares what you are. the only sign needed is an ‘occupied’/‘vacant’ on the latch.

      (edit: well, you’d still have to have a placard with braille on it so blind people can know what kind of room it is.)

    • FLemmingO@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Most of the disabled stalls I’ve encountered (at least in the US) are within the gendered bathrooms. So even if the stall is nominally gender neutral one first has to enter the men’s room or women’s room.

        • darq@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          So much of the online bathroom discussion makes more sense when one realises that US public restroom designs are insane.

        • FLemmingO@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Yeah here in the good ol (hahahaha) USA most establishments have a separate “restroom” for men and women which consist of a row of sinks for washing up and a number of stalls for toilets (and urinals in men’s rooms of course).

          Sometimes the urinals are just in a row on the wall with no dividers between. But there’s usually one or two disabled stalls as well, although they’re not locked in any way.

        • Lmaydev@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          Do you know you can just buy those keys online?

          I didn’t know this for years. So handy.

          But be careful as people will ask staff for the key and open it on you haha

          • darq@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Wow I would have thought it would at least have a regular deadbolt from the inside in addition to the external lock.

            Also typing this comment makes me realise it’s a little weird to externally lock public toilets in the first place. But I know we can’t have nice things.

        • mxcory@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 year ago

          I have seen some separate restrooms that are unisex plus handicap accessible. Think they are labeled “Family Restroom.” Haven’t used one though.

        • uis@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          and you need a key

          Why? It is already so invenient for people without disabilities to somewhere and ask for something, that for disabled it will be nearly-impossible.

  • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Under the law, “each school district, county office of education, and charter school” would be required to have at least one gender-neutral bathroom on campus on or before July 1, 2026.

    Whut?? Why not just make them all human restrooms? How does it takes two+ years to switch some signage and inform people to use whatever door they wish?

    I’ve been living in a city with “gender-neutral” restrooms for so long that I forget what it used to be like. Well, aside from sports and entertainment complexes.

    • mxcory@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      They may want to allow time for remodeling instead of just new signage. Maybe better stalls for actual privacy. I hate the typical stall I see in the US.

    • iHUNTcriminals@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Moron politics. They only get shit done that doesn’t really matter for good looks.

      Essentially I guess this was needed for redneck morons to know they can use the same bathroom as anyone else because they aren’t extra special…

      (This post isn’t anti lgbtq+)

      • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Ah, so more like two years to give rednecks conservatives a heads up that this is happening. That does make some sense.

  • Rayspekt@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    So there will stil be regular male/female toilets? In the end I’m kinda whatever about this as long as it’s not used as an excuse to remove urinals.

    • Old_Dude@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yes, every gender neutral bathroom I’ve seen here at elementary schools and college campuses have single occupancy gender neutral bathroom/s next to the men’s and women’s bathrooms.

    • Doubletwist@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I haven’t read the text of the law, but unless it explicitly says otherwise, I suspect it will be up to the schools/districts. If they have the money and room to build separate non-gendered bathrooms, then some of them will do so. But I suspect that most will simply convert existing bathrooms and not have gender specific bathrooms at all.

    • ikidd@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Every gender neutral bathroom I’ve been in has removed the urinals. It’s fucking annoying.

      • Rayspekt@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Yeah that’s what my comment is about. Just removing stuff until you end up at the common (worst) denominator is the worst kind of equality.

    • quindraco@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      stares in confusion But urinals are the absolute worst. Benefits: cost less money and less space. Drawbacks: lack of privacy and inevitable splashback. Why would you want them?

      • LwL@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        So I don’t have to sit on a public toilet of questionable cleanliness. A small bit of splashback from my own piss is preferable.

        The privacy just has never been a concern bc no one is trying to look at other people’s dicks while pissing.

        • quindraco@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          If you can use a urinal, you can piss in a toilet without sitting down.

          • LwL@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            …which has all the same splashback issues except youre much more likely to have some piss spray in sone random spot outside the bowl

      • Rayspekt@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Urinals are more convenient when you just need to take a quick piss. I don’t get why another person next to you is a problem. Also just don’t piss dead center into the thing considering splashback. Do I really have to explain pissing now?

        • quindraco@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Urinals offer exactly zero additional convenience, and there is no splashback-free angle.

          • Kevin@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            What using urinals offer:

            • don’t need to close a door
            • don’t need to touch the seat to lift/lower it
            • takes up much less space than toilets
            • can chat with the bros

            There is much less splash using a urinal than standing at a toilet. You’re doing something very wrong if it’s splashing all over the place (how tf?).

            • quindraco@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              Basic physics. Toilets have zero splash because gravity exists. Urinals have maximum splash due to conservation of momentum.

  • steltek@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Important consequence of this in the context of elementary schools: most little boys don’t lift up the seat when they pee and their aim is atrocious. At my kids’ school, the gender neutral bathrooms are the toilets of last resort.

    • uis@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      “Animal Shit House”

      You are correct, humans are not plants, fungi, bacterias or viruses, but what about colorful ponies? Our toilets are unlikely to fit them.

      • MetaCubed@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        “animal shit house” does not necessarily imply that multiple types of animal use it

        Humans are animals, we use the shit house, therefore it is an animal shit house

  • zanzo@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    it’s heartening that the governor has been working so hard to solve the state’s crippling housing crisis…oh wait…what?

    • Pratai@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      People can do more than one thing at a time. Did no one ever tell you about this?

  • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    Ah yes the four genders: woman, man, oh my god what the fuck happened to you, now youre disabled