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Also, please visit the pages of our sister organizations:

National Center for Transgender Equality

Transgender Law Center, San Francisco.

Sylvia Rivera Law Project, New York City

Employment Non-Discrimation Act

October 17th, 2007--Washington, DC-- Banding Together: The division in Congress about whether employment protections should exclude transgender workers has forced unity for gay rights activists across the board. By Shannon Minter. Read more at The Advocate.

October 15, 2007--Washington, DC--Bill to Protect GLB Workers Advances Without the T. Democrats on Thursday sent to the full House legislation that would prohibit workplace discrimination against gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, despite bitter complaints from some because transgender workers would not be protected under the bill. Democratic leaders pushed forward the current bill after discovering that including transgender workers in the legislation would cause it to fail in the full House, and promised to try and get additional legislation in the future. Four Democrats -- Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, Rush Holt of New Jersey, Linda Sanchez of California, and Yvette Clarke of New York -- voted against the bill because of its exclusion of gender identity. ''We could have done better,'' Sanchez said. Read more.

Visit United ENDA for updates on ENDA, and to take action, and to email your representative.

ENDA October 1, 2007:-Washington, DC--From NGLTF: "More than 90 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations tell Congress: Don't leave transgender people behind!" Read  the letter.

It’s Your History—Use It! Talking Points for Tran-Inclusive ENDA Activists by Susan Stryker.

March 26, 2007--Geneva--‘Yogyakarta Principles’ a Milestone for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights; Experts Set Out Global Standards for Sexual Rights and Gender Equality. A groundbreaking set of principles on sexual orientation, gender identity, and international law is a landmark advance in the struggle for basic human rights as well as gender equality, Human Rights Watch and the Center for Women’s Global Leadership said today. The document, known as the Yogyakarta Principles after the city where it was adopted, was launched today in Geneva by a group of 29 international human rights experts. Complete HRW Press Release here. The Yogyakarta Principles are online here: yogyakartaprinciples.org.

March 4, 2007--Transgender Rights, edited by Paisley Currah, Richard M. Juang, and Shannon Price Minter is a finalist in the 2007 Lambda Literary Awards.

March 2, 2007--United Kingdom--New Research Report released, "Engendered Penalties: Transgender and Transsexual People’s Experiences of Inequality and Discrimination."  Authored by Stephen Whittle, Lewis Turner and Maryam Al-Alami, this 95 page report was commissioned by the UK Government's Equalities Review. As a consequence of the report's findings, the UK Government has announced that transgender will be a protected category (along with sex & gender; race & ethnicity; physical or mental disability; religion & faith; age; and sexual orientation) for the new Equalities and Human Rights Commission that starts work in October 2007. Report is online in PDF here here.

December 14, 2006--Trenton, NJ--New Jersey Legislature passes bill that adds civil rights protections for transgender people. Story here.

December 5, 2006--New York, NY--The New York City Board of Health voted today to reject, in part, a proposal to update New York City’s policy permitting transgender people born in New York City to change the gender on their birth certificates to bring the policy – which has not been updated since 1971 – into line with contemporary medical knowledge and practice. While the Board did vote to allow new birth certificates to be issued with a transgender person’s new gender marked on them, they rejected a common sense medical recommendation to better recognize a person’s transition from one gender to another. Complete press release here.

Popular items and select recent resources

March 2005--Nice map of transgender non-discrimination laws published by Congressional Quarterly, updated March 2005.  Here.

March 2005--Nice map of transgender non-discrimination laws published by Congressional Quarterly, updated March 2005.  Here.

Joint TLPI-NGLTF comprehensive chart, "Scope of Explicitly Transgender-Inclusive Non-Discrimination Laws."   In pdf here.  (Sometimes this large chart doesn't load right; if so, email us for a copy.)

See also these charts from the NGLTF Transgender Civil Rights Project:    
    1. Years passed between sexual orientation and gender identity/expression
    2. Year in Review: State and Local Trans-Inclusive Legislation 2005 / 2004 / 2003 / 2002
    3. Populations of jurisdictions with explicitly transgender-inclusive anti-discrimination laws here.

September 2006--University of Minnesota Press releases Transgender Rights, edited by Paisley Currah, Richard M. Juang, and Shannon Price Minter.   Over the past three decades, the transgender movement has gained visibility and achieved significant victories. Discrimination has been prohibited in several states, dozens of municipalities, and more than two hundred private companies, while hate crime laws in eight states have been amended to include gender identity. Yet prejudice and violence against transgender people remain all too common. With analysis from legal and policy experts, activists and advocates, Transgender Rights assesses the movement’s achievements, challenges, and opportunities for future action. Examining crucial topics like family law, employment policies, public health, economics, and grassroots organizing, this groundbreaking book is an indispensable resource in the fight for the freedom and equality of those who cross gender boundaries. For more information, and a table of contents, click here.

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Contact us:

If you have a question about how the law in your jurisdiction affects you, or are looking for a referral, email us here.

If you are a reporter, go here.

If you have information about new laws, regulations or policies affecting transgender people or notice a bad link, or, let us know.  These pages are a community effort and we really appreciate your feedback.

If you are considering drafting and/or proposing a state or local anti-discrimination law, the Transgender Law and Policy Institute, working with Lisa Mottet of the Transgender Civil Rights Project at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is available to advise you. Email us here.

If you've found the information on these web pages helpful, please consider supporting our sister organization, the Transgender Law Center, whose staff volunteers to help answer the legal queries you send us. If you can, please help out this important institution by giving online here.   You can read more about the Transgender Law Center on their web page here

These pages are a community effort. Unlike the pages of many advocacy organizations, we don't ask for a contribution in the form of money. We do, however, ask you to share your knowledge and experience with other transgender rights advocates.  If you have developed resources for lobbying -- education handouts, legal memoranda, testimony, reports of violence and discrimination -- and would agree to post or link them here, please email them to us as attachments or send us the URL for linking. We will convert them for you, and post them with your name/logo prominently displayed.

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