NEWS RELEASE-April 13, 2003
CONTACT:
Paisley Currah
Board Member, Transgender Law and Policy Institute
& Associate Professor of Political Science, Brooklyn College, CUNY
Tel: 917-686-7663
Email: pcurrah@concentric.net
Web: www.transgenderlaw.org
April 13, 2003, New York, NY--New York State will become the thirteenth state in the U.S. this year to consider
legislation that would ban discrimination against transgender people when Senator Thomas Duane and Assemblyman
Richard Gottfried unveil the “Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act” (GENDA) at an Albany press conference Monday.
The legislation is desperately needed, say transgender rights advocates.
"Gender identity discrimination is pervasive in employment, education, healthcare, and the criminal justice system," said
Dean Spade, Coordinator of the Sylvia Rivera Legal Resource Program, which serves transgender clients. “In order to
participate equally in economic and educational opportunities, transgender and gender different New Yorkers need to be
protected from this discrimination, which often includes harassment and violence,” Spade said. “GENDA will send a clear
statement that all New Yorkers have a right to equal treatment regardless of gender identity or expression.”
For Camille Hopkins, a transsexual woman who is a Human Resources Planner for the City of Buffalo, this legislation is
critical. "My being transgendered was a problem for my landlord when last April he told me to find another place to live
because he didn’t rent to ‘people like you.’ I want GENDA passed because gender different people need protection from
this kind of prejudice.”
According to Paisley Currah, a board member of the Transgender Law and Policy Institute and an associate professor
of political science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, many transsexual people are fired the moment
their employers find out about their plan to transition. “That’s just wrong--no one should lose their job or be denied a place
to live because of their expression of their deeply felt sense of themselves as a man or a woman.”
The bill would also close loopholes in existing discrimination law, protecting those who now fall between the cracks of bans on
sex and sexual orientation discrimination. “This legislation would protect not just self-identified transgender people, but anyone
who is discriminated against because they don’t fit a narrow stereotype of what it means to be a ‘real man’ or a ‘real woman,’
including men regarded as too feminine and women seen as too masculine,” Currah said.
If the bill were to pass, New York would join three other states—Minnesota, New Mexico, and Rhode Island—with laws in place
banning bias against transgender residents and workers. The TLPI, which tracks transgender inclusive non-discrimination legislation,
has found, in addition to the three states, 54 cities and counties in the United States, including New York City, Buffalo, Rochester
and Suffolk County, that have non-discrimination legislation that clearly includes transgender people.
The language used in the bill is very similar to New York City's Human Rights Law, which was amended last year to protect people
whose gender identity or gender expression is not traditionally associated with their birth sex. The state legislation defines “gender
identity or expression” as "having or being perceived as having a gender identity, self-image, appearance, behavior or expression
whether or not that gender identity, self-image, appearance, behavior or expression is different from that traditionally associated with
the sex assigned to that person at birth.”
Last December, New York State’s non-discrimination law was amended to include sexual orientation. At that time, key legislators and
leaders of the GLB community decided to not also add gender identity and expression to the law, a severe blow to transgender
communities across the state. According to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, if gender identity is not included when sexual
orientation is added to a non-discrimination law, the average time it takes to add gender identity is 13.3 years. Transgender rights activists
in New York hope they don’t have to wait that long.
A coalition of groups–including
Housing Works, the Transgender Law & Policy Institute, the National Gay and
Lesbian Taskforce, the New York Transgender Coalition, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual &
Transgender Community Center, and the Empire State Pride Agenda—are working together
to advocate for the legislation.
More information:
Transgender Law & Policy Institute chart of U.S. jurisidictions that have passed non-discrimination laws at:
http://www.transgenderlaw.org/ndlaws/chart.pdf
Transgender Law & Policy Institute "Talking Points" on Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act at
http://www.transgenderlaw.org/resources/genda.pdf
______________________________________________________________________
The Transgender Law & Policy Institute brings experts and advocates together to work on law and policy initiatives designed to advance
transgender equality. Information on transgender rights legislation and litigation, as well as news updates and charts and maps listing jurisdictions
with transgender inclusive human rights laws can be found on our web page at http://www.transgenderlaw.org.
