The First Dad is looking out fall other dads.
Last week, the US President Barack Obama signed into law the Bathrooms Accessible in Every Situation Act, or the BABIES Act requiring publicly accessible bathrooms in federal buildings to have baby changing stations in both men’s and women’s bathrooms.
Rhode Island Representative David Cicilline introduced the bill in April this year which passed into law this summer with support from Republicans as well as Democrats and very little opposition.
Now dads out with baby can comfortably change a diaper and it won’t be all on moms and baby won’t have to wait until get home to get out of a stinky diaper.
Well…only when they’re in a federal building. The law still doesn’t apply to private facilities and neither does it apply in employee-only bathrooms. Also, if a federal building already has a baby changing station in a male-accessible bathroom (such as a unisex single-stall bathroom), it doesn’t need to install another changing station in the men’s bathrooms. Well, that makes sense.
Changes in those area may come soon or maybe more private companies may buckle under pressure. Last year, actor Ashton Kutcher created a petition to get Target and Costco to add changing stations, arguing “dads, like myself, want to participate equally in the child care process and our society should support that.”
Also, a New York State Senator, Brad Hoylman, has noted that single fathers or same-sex couples are also out of luck if the only changing stations available are in women’s bathrooms.