The Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed a new rule on Friday that would require federally-funded emergency shelters to allow transgender individuals to use the shared bathing or sleeping areas of the gender they identify with.
Shelters that receive a portion of the $6.5 billion in annual funding from the Office of Community Planning and Development would be required "to provide transgender persons and other persons who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth with access to programs, benefits, services, and accommodations in accordance with their gender identity," the proposed regulation states, reported The Washington Free Beacon.
The Gender Identity Rule comes as a follow-up to the agency's February 2012 "Equal Access Rule," which prohibits discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people living in public housing, according to Time.
"A person seeking shelter is already in a very vulnerable situation, and they deserve to be treated with dignity when they request our assistance," HUD Secretary Julián Castro said. "This rule takes us one step closer to full acceptance of transgender men and women, and will ensure they receive the proper services that respect their identity."
HUD said that since the Equal Access Rule, it conducted further review to determined whether transgender individuals had fair access to temporary and emergency shelters and other facilities that require shared sleeping quarters or bathing facilities.
As part of that review, the agency said it participated in a "listening session on LGBT issues" at a homelessness conference and found that when transgender individuals were "given the choice between a shelter designated for their assigned birth sex or sleeping on the streets, many transgender shelter-seekers would choose the streets."
The agency cited a national survey which found that 47 percent of all transgender respondents who accessed shelters left those shelters because of the treatment they received, "choosing the street over the abuse and indignity they experienced in the shelters."
"With respect to facilities with shared sleeping or bathing areas, the policies recommended include addressing the needs of transgender persons and other persons who do not identify with the sex assigned to the individual at birth," according to the rule. "A recent report on experiences of homeless LGBT youth also calls for the creation of safe and supportive protocols for housing and placement specific to transgender individuals and individuals who do not conform with gender stereotypes."
The public has 60 days to comment on the proposed rule.
