Mon 15 November 2021:
After sparking a controversy with its unisex bathroom, a McDonald’s restaurant in Brazil was ordered on Sunday to comply with health regulations by installing separate male and female bathrooms.
The controversy erupted after a viral video taken inside a McDonald’s unisex bathroom in Bauru, Sao Paulo state, went viral.
In the video, a woman who appears to have shot the clip can be heard complaining: “This is absurd! Children use these bathrooms. This is communism in our city of Bauru, it’s shameful!”
▶️ “McDonald’s é comunista”, diz mulher sobre banheiro multigênero.
Em vídeo, mulher afirma ser contra banheiros unissex da empresa e chama empresa multinacional de comunista.
Leia: https://t.co/bmkd54lQYf pic.twitter.com/9WkxGzBgnt
— Metrópoles (@Metropoles) November 13, 2021
The video caused such a storm that health officials visited the restaurant and “found that the municipality’s health regulations had not been respected,” Bauru mayor Suellen Roim said on Twitter.
According to a local law, bathrooms must be “separated and identified, one for each sex.”
McDonald’s has been given two weeks to comply with the regulation or face either a fine or the restaurant’s closure.
The company explained in a statement that it was trying to create areas of “inclusion and respect” so that “everyone feels welcome to use” the bathrooms.
The fast food chain said it was cooperating with authorities to “meet certain standards.”
But the issue riled up the ire of conservatives where gender issues have become a hot topic since far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been accused of sexism and homophobia, assumed power three years ago, the matter enraged conservatives.
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