Housing Works: Housing Prevents AIDS. Housing Improves Health.

Now that the Albany budget battle is basically done, we can set our sights on less money-oriented—but no less important—legislation that is going through Albany. Here are some key health care and equality-based bills to look out for in the coming months.

The Gender Expression Nondiscrimination Act (GENDA), which would prevent discrimination against transgender people and discrimination on the basis of gender identity, passed in the Assembly last June by an overwhelming and bipartisan margin of 108-34. Now with the Dems in control of the Senate, there’s a better-than-even chance that this overdue bill, sponsored by Sen. Tom Duane, could finally become law in New York State.

“For 30 years the Senate has been our brick wall,” said Melissa Sklarz, a transgender rights advocate who has worked on passing GENDA for more than a decade. “It’s much easier now to come up with a fair-minded majority.”

And for better or worse, the reactionary opposition by some senators to gay marriage might have a silver lining. The Senate may attempt to throw the LGBT community a bone in the form of GENDA.

“[Senators] who might be uncomfortable with marriage might want to do something for the LGBT community, and will show their support by voting for GENDA,” Sklarz said.

The same attitude might also propel another LGBT-endorsed bill, the Dignity for All Students Act, which prohibits bullying in school on the basis of a host of categories, including race, disability, sexual orientation and gender (including gender identity and expression).

The bill passed in the Assembly on Tuesday, and along with GENDA and gay marriage, will be the key lobbying pushes at Empire State Pride Agenda’s Equality and Justice Day in Albany on April 28. Register for Equality and Justice Day

Fighting Unfair Rent

Legislation known as the 30 Percent Rent Cap would close a loophole that makes poor HIV-positive tenants pay astronomical rents, forcing them to live on as little as $11 a day. Housing provided by New York City’s HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) is not subject to the same cap that Section 8 and all federally funded low-income housing programs are.

Because there are short-term budgetary costs—though long-term savings —this fight is expected to be an uphill battle. But Assembly sponsor Deborah Glick said she and Senate sponsor Duane will be educating their colleagues and the bill has a chance to become law this year. “I’m an optimist,” she told the Update in March. The bill (A.2565 and S.2664) was first introduced by Duane and Glick in 2006

The New York City AIDS Housing Network is organizing a lobby day in Albany around the 30 Percent Rent Cap for April 29. Contact Jaron Benjamin at jaron@nycahn.org or (718) 864-3932 for more information.

Testing

Prepare for some drama as the Senate and Assembly work to overhaul Article 27-f, the New York State Health Department’s law that ensures privacy with HIV testing. AIDS advocates are divided on the issue of informed consent for HIV testing.

Legislation (S.3293) that passed through the Senate Health Committee is sponsored by Duane and written by the New York State Department of Health. It is the similar to the bill brought forward last year by Assembly Health Chair Richard Gottfried and former Senate Health Committee Chair Kemp Hannon.

Housing Works, the HIV Law Project and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) are among those that worry that the new bill doesn’t go far enough in protecting the information of people who receive HIV tests and in ensuring that people who take HIV tests do so with written, informed consent.

And advocates from National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, Latino Commission on AIDS, and Harlem United, also oppose Duane’s bill, but because they feel it doesn’t go far enough routinizing testing.

“Senator Duane’s proposed legislation does not go far enough. New York will be missing a critical opportunity to reduce HIV/AIDS infections – and possibly to halt the disease altogether,” said NBLCA President and CEO C. Virginia Fields.

Last year the bill was announced as a “compromise bill” in response to far more dangerous legislation from Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn. Mayersohn wanted to allow doctors to test for HIV without telling patients. Both bills stalled last June.

Housing Works has written a series of principles that should serve as the basis of what any HIV testing bill should include. The principles highlight the need to expand testing without eliminating written informed consent.

Also on the HIV testing front, Housing Works is supporting a bill (A. 303) that would require insurers to cover the cost of HIV testing for all patients. This expands access to testing for all people and takes the classism out of HIV testing.Currently, expanding testing efforts can only go so far, since unlike New Yorkers who receive Medicaid, those who receive private insurance can legally be denied HIV tests by their insurers.