It's been a great week for transgender civil rights. In Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter said no to the lies of Daddy Dobson and company and signed SB 200. Now the New York State Assembly has finally passed AO6584 or GENDA, a bill first introduced in 2003. GENDA, or the Gender Employment Non-Discrimination Act, bans discrimination against transgender people in New York State in housing, employment, credit, public accomdations and other areas of everyday life.
The bill had a record 74 sponsors, made it to the floor for a vote this year and passed the Assembly by a whopping 102-33 vote.
Empire State Pride Agenda Executive Director Alan Van Capelle said, "Transgender New Yorkers are in constant fear that they will lose their jobs, be kicked out of their homes, or simply be denied service in a restaurant. It goes without saying that these members of our community should be able to go about the business of living their daily lives openly and without fear."I believe the recent settling of the Khadijah Farmer case in New York may have had an effect on the positive outcome of GENDA in the Assembly this time. It not only highlighted some of the BS we go through, but put a name and a face to the types of discrimination that we've been verbalizing about for over a decade now.
GENDA still has to go through the GOP-controlled Senate, and you know the Republican Party's sorry history of the last 40 years when it comes to passing needed civil rights law.
