New Yelp feature locates restaurants with gender-neutral bathrooms

Today in tech companies doing great things: Yelp announced that the platform can help customers find restaurants with gender-neutral bathrooms. The company defines a gender-neutral bathrooms as a "locking, single-stall bathroom" Rachel Williams, head of diversity and inclusion at Yelp, wrote in a blog post. 

Here's how you will know if a business has gender-neutral restrooms

Click on a business, then tap "More Info." That status for "Gender Neutral Restrooms" is listed at the end of other miscellaneous information like attire and noise level. 

Users can identify businesses that have gender-neutral bathrooms when they check into a business or a business can edit this information from their "business user account," Williams wrote. 

Identifying gender-neutral bathrooms supports trans people in a big way

Former President Barack Obama issued a directive that enabled transgender students in public schools to use restrooms that correspond to their gender identity, but President Donald Trump reversed that guidance on Feb. 22, CNN reported.  

Yelp's new feature can help all people locate single-stall bathrooms, regardless of what court orders say. The app's added feature may help transgender people feel safe when the laws are blurry. And hey, who doesn't love the extra privacy of a single-stall bathroom? 

In another show of support for trans people, Yelp is supporting Gavin Grimm, the teenager who sued his local school board because it forbid him from using the boys bathroom . Yelp signed the Human Rights Campaign's amicus brief supporting Grimm on Thursday. 

"At Yelp we thrive on inclusion and acceptance, and we hope that our support for Gavin's case and the addition of this new business attribute will help our friends in the LGBTQQIA community," Williams wrote.