Growing number of local businesses adopting gender-neutral signs for their ... - Florida Times-Union
When it comes to using the public restrooms, an almost paralyzing fear sometimes brushes over Wade Davis — a fear that walking through the wrong door could have dangerous consequences. “You see people jeering and making noises when you head towards the restroom … so you sit there and you hold yourself out of fear,” he said. Born male, Davis said he never really fit into one gender. Later in life, he became comfortable expressing himself as both male and female, wearing dresses somedays and male attire other times. “I’ve had friends and even myself included who’ve been thrown out of restaurants for wanting to go the restroom, for not wanting to go to the men’s room,” he said. At Zodiac Bar and Grille in downtown, men replaced the signs beside each single-occupancy restroom as Davis sat reflecting at a table. In their place, two identical signs displaying a male, female and another symbol donning half a skirt. The Mediterranean-American eatery is part of a growing list of local businesses in the Riverside and downtown area shedding the traditional gender-specific emblems for gender-neutral signs. Local social activist Ben Weaver, who runs a sign business along with Jim Minion, first proposed the plan to donate the “genderless” signs to local restaurants with a social media post about a month ago. Source: jacksonville.com
