Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill on September 29, mandating all single-stall bathrooms in California to be used as gender neutral.
The legislation requires all business and government offices to post gender-neutral signs on the single-occupant toilets.
The bathrooms will now be subject to inspection by health and other government officials who will check the signs outside bathrooms to ascertain if they comply with the state's new gender-neutral regulation.
The bill, AB 1731, was sponsored by Assemblyman Phil Ting, who also called it "the nation's most inclusive restroom access law among states."
The bill will be implemented from March 1, 2017. It was endorsed and sponsored by Equality California, California NOW, and Transgender Law Center.
Cities which have already enacted similar laws as California's gender-neutral bathroom bill include Portland, Washington D.C., West Hollywood, Austin, Berkeley, Philadelphia, Seattle, and San Francisco.
On September 27, the governor had signed a bill to limit state-funded travel to North Carolina and other states over 'bathroom laws' that require people to use restrooms in conformity with their birth genders.
About 19 states including Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and New York have brought bills to their respective legislatures that sought to mandate bathroom use in line with biological genders of the people.
