A bathroom sign welcomes both genders at the Cacao Cinnamon coffee shop in Durham, North Carolina May 3, 2016. The shop in...

California governor Brown approves gender-neutral restroom bill

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Jerry Brown is wading further into the debate over transgender rights as he approves a bill requiring that all single-stall toilets in California be designated as gender neutral.

The Democratic governor announced Thursday that he has signed the bill, AB1732.

Democratic Assemblyman Phil Ting of San Francisco says his bill establishes the nation’s most inclusive restroom-access law and will counter what he termed hateful efforts in other states.

It requires businesses and governments to post non-gender-specific signs on single-occupant restrooms by March 1, 2017.

Lawmakers sent the bill to Brown in August, a day after a federal judge temporarily blocked President Barack Obama’s order that public schools let students use bathrooms that correlate with their gender identity.

California students can already do so under a law Brown signed in 2013.