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More than 2,000 LGBT people and their allies gathered in Albany for the Empire State Pride Agenda Lobby Day Tuesday. And while marriage equality clearly brought the record-crowds out, there was also behind the scenes maneuvering around the Gender Identity Nondiscrimination Act (GENDA).

On the same day that Albany legislators entertained LGBT constituents in their offices, the first Senate committee GENDA vote had to be postponed, and it remains unclear how difficult the road to passage will be in the State Senate.

Although GENDA (A.5710./S. 2406), which would protect people from discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression, was scheduled to pass out of the Government and Investigations committee on Tuesday, the bill’s cosponsor Sen. Tom Duane didn’t know if he had the votes for passage. And as luck would have it, LGBT foe Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. is on the committee. When Diaz was on the City Council in 2002, he gave an impassioned speech against protections for gender identity and ended up abstaining. It’s unknown if his views have evolved.

“We’ve never talked to Ruben Diaz Sr. about his views on GENDA,” said Duane’s counsel Mark Furnish.

If the committee doesn’t have enough votes to pass GENDA, there are other options for moving it forward. Committees finish at the end of May, so GENDA could be sent directly to the Rules committee, which, Furnish said, has “much friendlier senators.”

“It’s an eternity until the end of session. I won’t say I’m 100 percent sure, but I’m still optimistic we’ll pass GENDA,” Furnish said. “Every time there’s been a civil rights battle, we always seem to come through on the right side of it.”

The Assembly passed GENDA last week in a vote of 97 to 38. Assembly member Deborah Glick said she believed the hesitation by her colleagues in the Senate is more of a political then an ideological question.

“I don’t think it’s a question of support, it’s a question of the Senate coalescing around legislation,” said Assembly member Deborah Gilick. “In the Senate, you have such a narrow nonworking majority and when you don’t have all the Democrats aligned, it’s hard to get a lot done.”

Lobbying friends and foes

On Tuesday, transgender rights activists spoke to their legislators asking them to pass GENDA, marriage equality, and the Dignity for All Students Act, which would prohibit bullying in school.

“Not every Democrat is good on our issues, just like not every Republican is bad on our issues,” Empire State Pride Agenda Executive Director Alan Van Capelle said at a rally. “And they all need to know that when they vote against our bills, they’ll have to tell your nieces and nephews and grandchildren that they voted against equality.”

The need for bipartisan lobbying prompted transgender rights advocates to call on friends, such as Sen. Velmanette Montgomery, pictured above, and foes, such as Assembly member Peter Lopez, who was one of GENDA’s key opponents in the Assembly.

“I wanted him to have a transgender friend,” said longtime transgender activist Melissa Sklarz. In the end, she said, “he said he respected my journey and understood the concept of gender identity, but was hung up on the gender expression part.”

Trans talk

Sklarz said that she is proud that ESPA has focused energy and attention on GENDA. For years, GENDA didn’t receive tangible support from the state’s largest LGBT lobby group, but now GENDA receives the full backing of the organization.

“I’ve been doing this work long enough that I remember when the Pride Agenda was the enemy,” Sklarz said, at a Lobby Day caucus around transgender rights. “Now they are our beloved friend.”

Many cities have laws protecting discrimination based on gender identity and expression including Buffalo, Ithaca and New York City. In New York City, Tracy Bumpus, a transgender woman, was able to sue the New York City Transit Authority when she was verbally assaulted by a Transit Authority employee in a subway station because of New York City’s protections.

At the caucus, some 50 transgender activists discussed the discrimination that they face, and why GENDA is important to them. Many said that legal protections are a first step, but that attitudes need to change for full acceptance to emerge, particularly in employment discrimination.

“I’m tired of being characterized as a ‘ho,” said Kiara Bogan, a Housing Works client who is transgender. “I need a job, but I’ve got the outsider status stuck on me.”