American-Designed Bathroom Signs Are Getting Rave Reviews in Toronto
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One of North America's largest fairs has a popular attraction on social media, but it isn't an amusement ride or fried food: it's the bathrooms. The Canadian National Exhibition had to buy new bathroom signs this year and fair officials decided to get all-gender bathroom signs that say "we don't care."
“Everyone is welcome at The Ex, where people can feel comfortable and not labeled,” Virginia Ludy, the general manager of CNE, told BuzzFeed News.
The signs, manufactured by Midtown Signs in Kansas City, Missouri, made news back in April when they debuted in a North Carolina hotel. North Carolina's Gov. Pat McCrory signed a discriminatory bathroom bill in the previous month which requires transgender people to use the bathroom according to the gender on their birth certificate.
In response, President Barack Obama issued an order that required public schools to let transgender students use the bathrooms of their choice, but that order was struck down this week. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor put a temporary injunction on Obama's order, according to the Associated Press.
In his decision, O'Connor wrote that federal education law is not "ambiguous" about the definition of sex at birth and federal officials did not follow the rules that require comment before an order like this is made. The judge also acknowledged that this decision had implications for students nationwide.
"This case presents the difficult issue of balancing the protection of students' rights and that of personal privacy ... while ensuring that no student is unnecessarily marginalized while attending school," he wrote, according to the Associated Press.
