City to update infrastructure and services to be more Transgender inclusive

Vancouver City Councillors unanimously approved a list of recommendations on Wednesday evening that would make city infrastructure and services more inclusive for trans and gender-variant people.

Among the top priorities are creating non-gendered, universal signage for single-use washrooms and developing a checklist for trans inclusion in city events. The city aims to have those strategies implemented by December of 2017.

TransFocus Consulting, a group that specializes in providing transgender resources and inclusive policies to employers, was tasked by the City to provide recommendations across five pillars:

Public spaces, facilities and signage
Programs and services
Human resources
Communications and data
Community consultation and public partnerships

The consultant report by TransFocus provides a total of 14 recommendations and 31 sub-recommendations for making city infrastructure and programs and services more inclusive to trans and gender-variant people.

“The recommendations in this report are intended to position the City in a pivotal role to make the changes and accommodations necessary for the inclusion of trans*, gender variant and two-spirit residents,” reads the report. “With an interdepartmental implementation team, a practical, timely set of actions will be developed with measurable outcomes.”