Single Sex Restrooms Now Open to Any Gender in NYC

New York City will now allow a person of any gender to choose whether to use a men's or women's bathroom or locker room in city offices, public parks, pools, playgrounds, some museums and recreation centers.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, signed an executive order on Monday that guarantees people access to single-sex facilities "according to their gender identity" without the need to show identification or any other proof of gender.

"Access to bathrooms and other single-sex facilities is a fundamental human right that should not be restricted or denied to any individual," de Blasio said. "Every New Yorker should feel safe in our city - and this starts with our city's buildings."

"We have very clear New York values and we're going to stand up for them," said de Blasio, in a clear rebuttal to Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz's recent criticism of the city's liberal politics. "Here, we respect the rights of all."

The regulations don't require agencies to build new single-stall restroom or locker room facilities. It instead stipulates that all individuals, including those who are transgender or gender non-conforming, are free to use single-sex facilities "consistent with their gender identity," city officials said.

The order does not apply to New York City's public schools because there already is a policy that students must be allowed to use locker rooms or restrooms consistent with their gender identity.

A bill currently pending before the city council would require publicly available, single-occupancy restrooms in both public and private buildings to be designated as gender-neutral.

"This city is the birthplace of the nation's LGBT movement," the mayor said at a news conference in Chelsea, the Manhattan neighborhood often considered at the heart of New York's gay community. "That work doesn't have an end point."

Nearly all of the nation's 20 largest cities, including New York City, have local or state nondiscrimination laws that allow transgender people to use whatever bathroom with which they identify.

Houston voters defeated an ordinance last fall that would have established nondiscrimination protections for gay and transgender people.

Last week, South Dakota's governor vetoed a bill that would have made the state the first in the United States to approve a law requiring transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their sex at birth.