If you happen to be in California you should be noticing something new about your public bathroom experience. A new law which went into effect in March mandates that all single user bathrooms must be adorned with a standardized sign which is gender neutral and conforms to the new state design parameters. Not everyone seems to be up to code yet, but the city of Long Beach is one of the ones that’s ahead of the curve. (CBS Los Angeles)

Officials in Long Beach released a new gender-neutral restroom sign Tuesday that will now be required for display on all single-user restrooms in the city.

The city of Long Beach is leading the way, installing the newly required signs at public buildings and businesses with single-user toilet facilities to ensure equal access.

“Providing inclusive, safe, gender-neutral restrooms is an important step forward for Long Beach,” Mayor Robert Garcia said in a statement. “It is important that all people feel valued and respected as a vital part of our diverse community.”

Well, that sounds really… progressive. Not to mention exciting! So I suppose we should have a look at the new sign. Are you ready?

So… it’s a… white triangle in a red circle. Well, alright then.

Nothing harmful I suppose. Not really even controversial. And since it’s only being applied to single user facilities, all the better. We’ve been covering these Bathroom Wars (sans Darth Vader) for some time now and I’ve long maintained that single person facilities are the only true solution left in era of the Social Justice Warriors. You don’t need to worry about being “stigmatized” in terms of which restroom you use if you’re the only person in there. The only real question which comes to mind for me is why you have to label them in any fashion related to gender. I know that the ones at my doctor’s office have always been single user, first come, first serve and there’s no distinction made for who uses them. The exceptions which come to mind are in bars and restaurants, though at least around here they rarely have single stall facilities as I recall.

But this solves the “transgender problem” provided all of the facilities can afford the expense of moving to single user toilets exclusively. The problem comes with the places which already have multiple user facilities and can’t afford the considerable expense of breaking them up into smaller rest rooms. The law in question here, however, wouldn’t apply to those scenarios.

So all’s well that ends well, right? Mostly. But I suppose there’s one final question we could address. What is it about a white triangle in a red circle that says, “bathroom” to anyone? People will get used to it in time I’m sure, but if I initially walked into one of these places looking for the john and saw that sign I’d probably mistake it for some sort of hazardous waste warning. (Insert your own restroom joke here.)