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.”