Amidst our advocacy budget battle to save the AIDS Institute, another battle continues to rage on.
The fight for GENDA, the state’s gender expression non-discrimination act, has been going full-force for over a decade, when transgender and gender non-conforming people’s rights were surreptitiously left out of SONDA—the sexual-orientation non-discrimination act—at the last minute.
And this year has proven to be the same old game. On Wednesday, as news broke that GENDA was moved from the Government Operations Committee to the Codes Committee in the Assembly, meaning that the bill is one step from being moved onto the floor of the Assembly. However, despite this positive movement, other news outlets are reporting that the bill will face the same blockade by the NY Senate, who have continually refused to see the bill as a question of equal access, opportunity, and protections. Instead, they spew hateful nonsense about bathrooms, wigs, and genitals.
Michael Long, the chairman of the New York Conservative Party, stated last month, “Naturally, we’re opposed to [GENDA]. They should be protected, as we all are. We are for equal rights for all human beings. There is no need to create special classifications for individuals.”
But what Mr. Long and his party have continually gotten wrong is that GENDA doesn’t create so-called “special classifications,” and that transgender people and gender non-conforming people all across the state DO NOT HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS.
Let’s say that again: transgender people and gender non-conforming New Yorkers DO NOT HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS.
As Housing Works and other LGBT organizations all across the state have been stating—shouting, even—for years now, is that it is still legal to refuse services or entry to people in education, employment, housing, and public accommodations because of their gender identity or expression.
In other words, discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming people is still legal in NY, and frankly, with the Senate’s refusal to pass GENDA, this discrimination continues to be sanctioned by the highest members of the state’s government.
How’s that for an eye-opener?
So no, Mr. Long, transgender and gender non-conforming New Yorkers are not protected as “we all are,” and to state otherwise reveals the NY Conservative Party’s and the Senate Republicans’ complete lack of understanding about the bill’s protections, the systematic discriminations transgender people face, and the true need for the bill.
We are all equals! Transgender and gender non-conforming people are our equals and its time that our state protects them equally.
The time for GENDA is now.
Stay tuned for updates.
Follow the Update blog on Twitter @housingworks.
