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Transgender Rights Bill |
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Compiled By GayToday New York Association for Gender Rights
Mayor Bloomberg has agreed to sign it. The legislation would amend New York City human rights law to add the phrase 'gender identity or expression,' the first significant amendment of the law since the inclusion of sexual orientation in 1987; enactment would also make New York the largest city in the United States to explicitly protect transgendered people from discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. The Council members are acting upon a recommendation from a legislative work group convened by the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA) -- in partnership with the Empire State Pride Agenda - in October 1999 to study the problem of discrimination against transgendered and gender-variant people in New York City. That group includes the Council's three openly lesbian or gay members - Margarita Lopez, Christine Quinn, and Phil Reed -- as well as the bill's lead sponsor, Bill Perkins - who has been a strong supporter of New York's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities. In addition to the bill's primary sponsors, Intro 24 is being co-sponsored by 23 other Council members, including Speaker Gifford Miller and Councilmember Bill DeBlasio who, as chair of the General Welfare Committee, chaired yesterday's public hearing on the bill.
Added Park, "The board of directors of NYAGRA would like to commend Councilmember Bill DeBlasio for his leadership as chair of the committee in moving the bill to a vote yesterday as well as commending the Speaker for moving this to a vote on the floor of the Council today." "The anticipated enactment of Intro 24 by the New York City Council should provide impetus for passage of transgender rights legislation in cities and counties upstate," said Moonhawk River Stone, co-chair of NYAGRA. As a professional psychotherapist in private practice in Albany, Stone described the deleterious effects of discrimination on transgendered people in his testimony at Tuesday's hearing. The City of Rochester has already adopted transgender-inclusive anti-discrimination provisions in its human rights statute, as has Suffolk County; and the City of Ithaca has added 'gender presentation' to its local hate crimes law. |
Mayor Mike Bloomberg will sign the transgender rights bill approved by the New York City Council 