Both Boston and Cambridge have Transgendered protection ordinances that specifically guarantee a person access to public accommodations. One of those guarantees is the right to use the bathroom of your presenting gender. Now this probably only applies to public accommodations like bars, restaurants and stores. Private bathrooms at corporations may or may not be included.
The City of Boston's ordinance that addresses restrooms and other such facilities separated by sex allows individuals to use bathroom facilities based on the gender identity that they “publicly and exclusively assert or express.” This language prevents employers and proprietors of public accommodations from requiring people to use bathrooms that do not correspond to their gender identity. It does not mean that men will be sharing bathrooms with women, or vice versa.
Rather, the ordinance prevents the obvious disruptions that arise when people are required to use bathrooms inappropriate to their gender identity. Transgender people whom publicly and exclusively assert and express themselves as women belong in, and have the right to use, the women’s restroom. Transgender people who publicly and exclusively assert and express themselves as men belong in, and have the right to use, the men’s restroom. Allowing individuals to use the restroom that corresponds with the gender identity that they “publicly and exclusively assert or express” makes sense.
There is simply no legitimate way to do “anatomy checks” or “chromosomal checks” before determining who can use what restroom. Nothing in this ordinance alters an individual’s reasonable privacy and safety expectations in restrooms.
Notably, in all of the other jurisdictions that have passed similar ordinances, there has not been a single reported case of men in the women’s room. All people must have access to safe and dignified bathroom facilities, regardless of their gender identity or expression. Proprietors of public accommodations have an obligation to make restroom facilities safe for all people. However, we cannot let legitimate safety concerns become a proxy for bias and prejudice.
