By Heather Betz
June is an exciting time of action, advocacy, and celebration in LGBTQ communities across the country.
However, on the national stage, the rights of LGBTQ communities are under attack. This is particularly true for transgender, gender non-conforming and non-binary (TGNCNB) communities of color. In just the past few weeks, countless LGBTQ people have been needlessly endangered:
- The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear two momentous cases that could create an “LGBT exception” to federal civil rights laws, giving employers license to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
- The Trump administration issued a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services final rule allowing medical providers to refuse to treat LGBT people seeking health care solely because of religious or moral objections.
- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced a rule that will allow homeless shelters to discriminate against TGNCNB people based on sex.
The Trump administration opposed the Equality Act, which would amend the Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, and other areas.
With terrifying reports of some new discriminatory measure making headlines almost daily, our clients are unsurprisingly shaken. We are here to provide counsel and representation, to push back against these attacks and defend their rights in employment, housing, and access to healthcare. Luckily we have more protections for LGBTQ people in New York than in many parts of the country.
Currently, we are in the midst of working with legislators in Albany to expand those protections, including:
- Supporting a proposal to increase the number of beds in homeless shelters designated for TGNCNB adults.
- Backing a bill to expand TGNCNB individuals’ ability to easily change their name and gender marker on important documents (i.e. drivers license, out-of-state birth certificate).
- Fighting discriminatory laws that criminalize loitering for the purposes of prostitution. Law enforcement often profiles TGNCNB people as sex workers, whether they engage in sex work or not, so laws like these unfairly target and harm TGNC people.
Heather Betz is the Director of NYLAG’s LGBTQ Law Project.
