Mayor Bill DeBlasio

DeBlasio mandates that NYC stand by its values

Mayor Bill DeBlasio today signed an executive order declaring that all city-owned buildings that have single-sex facilities would allow transgender people to use the facility of the gender with which they identify. That order includes schools, city offices, gyms and recreation centers, public parks and some museums.

People will not be asked to show identification or otherwise prove their gender, the city said, and employees will receive training to assist them in meeting the requirements.

The city’s public hospitals and public housing buildings, which are not technically covered by the order because they are run as independent authorities, have also agreed to implement the rules.

Today, the executive order will make loud and clear that New York City is a city for us all: cisgender, transgender, non-binary.

--Carmelyn Malalais, chairof the NYC Human Rights Commission