The General Services Administration released a new bulletin on Thursday providing guidance for federal offices under its purview that allows transgender employees and visitors to its federal buildings to access the bathroom of the gender they identify with.
The text specifies “denying an employee equal access to a common restroom corresponding to the employee’s gender identity is sex discrimination.”
GSA spokeswoman Ashley Nash-Hahn said the purpose of the bulletin is to make it clear “that an individual can use whichever restroom matches their gender identity.”
Nash-Hahn added that the bulletin applies to about 9,200 federal locations under the jurisdiction, custody, or control of GSA, including various federal buildings in Washington, such as the GSA Central Office, courthouses throughout the United States and Social Security offices nationwide.
Earlier this month, a divided Supreme Court agreed to temporarily block a lower court order that had allowed a transgender male high school student to use the boys’ bathroom in a Virginia public school.
