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Sacramento Fire Calls New Gender-Neutral Bathrooms A Common Sense Move

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The next two Sacramento fire stations will be built with unisex bathrooms during a fierce debate over requirements for gender-neutral public restrooms.

The decision was made separately from the push by California lawmakers, and the department says it was based on common sense.

When Sacramento Fire Stations 14 and 15 move and the plans for the new firehouses are complete, one of the changes firefighters will see will be where they go when they have to go.

The new unisex, single-room bathrooms are space savers.

"For us, space is always at a premium when you're designing a fire station, we need to make sure there's plenty of room for living quarters, kitchens," says spokesman Chris Harvey.

Coincidentally, the fire department's plans come during a fiery national debate over public bathrooms and transgender rights.

The California Assembly passed legislation requiring single-occupancy bathrooms across the state be labeled as all-gender facilities.

"I think what's happening is folks have seen what's happened in North Carolina and realized that thinking is not mainstream," said political consultant Adam Keigwin.

The North Carolina law requires transgender people to use restrooms according to their biological sex.

But in Sacramento, the changes coming for the fire department come simply over space.

"It just happens to be a happy coincidence that if for some reason in the foreseeable future there was a transgender firefighter in the Sacramento Fire Department, it wouldn't be an issue for us because the bathrooms would already be unisex," Harvey said.

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