STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2928

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                   

 

RE:     S.B. No. 3151

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2020

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 3151 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EQUAL ACCESS TO PUBLIC CONVENIENCES,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require that any pair of separate-gender public restrooms or separate-gender toilet facilities of any public amusement facility constructed, renovated, retrofitted, or installed after January 1, 2021, shall have two exclusively female-use toilets for each exclusively male-use toilet and two exclusively female-use toilets for each exclusively male-use urinal.

 

     Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and Hawaii Civil Rights Commission.

 

     Your Committee finds that women have unequal access in the use and enjoyment of public restroom facilities and that unequal access is a form of discrimination based upon sex.  For reasons of anatomy and culture, women require greater accommodations to attend to their needs.  Thus, in the interest of equality, separate-gender public restrooms and toilet facilities should provide women with equal access to toilets as men.  Your Committee further finds that the availability of unisex or gender-neutral bathroom facilities resolves a number of equality concerns and therefore encourages public amusement facilities to consider installing such facilities whenever the opportunity should arise.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3151 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

 

 

 

________________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair