Federal and State Protections
- Federal:
- Title VII
- Prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex
- Title IX
- Prohibits sex discrimination in educational setting that receive federal funding
- HUD Regulation and Fair Housing Acgt
- Prohibits sex discrimination in public housing (including shelters)
- Affordable Care Act – 1557
- Healthcare and health insurance non-discrimination provision – May 2016 rul comprehensively protects transgender people.
- Emplyment Rights
- Federal courts, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) have concluded that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity constitues illegal sex discrimination
- Many states and localities also expressly prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity
- Everyone has the right to be treated with respect and not be harassed
- Harassment is unlawful when it is severa or widespread and an employer does not take steps to stop it
-
The Affordable Care Act (ACA)
prohibits sex discrimination, including:
- Discrimination based on gender identity, transgender status, or gender stereotypes, in hospitals and other health programs or facilities receiving federal financial assistance
- Bias based on race, national origin, age, and disability
- It prohibits the majority of health insurance companies and health care providers from discriminating against LGBTQ individuals, including by refusing to cover transition-related treatments or refusing to treat LGBTQ individuals consistently with their gender identity
- Courts and the Department of Health and Human Services have interpreted the law to prohibit discrimination against people who are transgender or who fail to conform to gender stereotypes
- The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
- protects the privacy of individually identifiable health information, including information related to a person’s transgender status and transition. It also gives patients the right to access, inspect, and copy your protected health information held by hospitals, clinics, and health plans.
- Medicare and Medicaid regulations
- protects the right of hospital patients to choose their own visitors and medical decision-makers regardless of their legal relationship to the patient. This means that hospitals cannot discriminate against LGBT people or their families in visitation and in recognizing a patient’s designated decision-maker.
- Joint Commission hospital accreditation standards
- require hospitals to have internal policies prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
- The Nursing Home Reform Act
- establishes a set of nursing home residents’ rights that include the right to privacy, including in visits from friends or loved ones; the right to be free from abuse, mistreatment, and neglect; the right to choose your physician; the right to dignity and self-determination; and the right to file grievances without retaliation.
- State and local nondiscrimination laws
- prohibit health care discrimination against trans people in many circumstances. A large number of states also have explicit policies that prohibit discrimination against trans people, like exclusions of transition-related care, in private insurance and Medicaid.
Housing Rights
- The Fair Housing Act
- prohibits discrimination based on sex in the sale or rental of housing and in mortgage lending
- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and many courts now interpret this law to protect transgender people
- HUD rules for federally-funded housing.
- Federal regulations explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation, or marital status in all federally-funded housing programs
- These regulations apply to public and assisted housing and rental assistance (voucher) programs that receive federal funds, including homeless shelters and other temporary housing, as well as to federally-insured home mortgages
- Survivors of Violence
- Despite its name, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) supports help for all survivors of intimate partner violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking
- VAWA prohibits discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity
- LGBTQ individuals have the right to access help as a survivor regardless of their sexual orientation, gender, transgender status or gender expression
- Schools
- Bullying, harassment, or discrimination against transgender or gender nonconforming students is covered by Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools
- Although, Title IX and Title IV do not prohibit discrimination based solely on sexual orientation, they protect all students, including students who are LGBT or perceived to be LGBT, from sex-based harassment
- Harassment based on sex and sexual orientation are not mutually exclusive
- When students are harassed based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation, they may also be subjected to forms of sex discrimination recognized under Title IX
- LGBTQ Rights in NY State
- Adoption/Parenting
- NY allows LGBTQ individuals and same-sex couples to adopt.
- The Center (www.gaycenter.org)
- You Gotta Believe (www.yougottabelieve.org)
- Gender Reassignment
- New York State does not require gender reassignment surgery to change gender markers or get a new birth certificate.
- Conversion Therapy
- February 6, 2016: Governor Cuomo enacted a series of regulations to prevent the use of conversion therapy on LGBT minors. They ban public and private health insurers from covering the practice in NY state and also prohibits mental health facilities from conducting the practice on minors in NY state.
- New York State Legislature voted on January 15, 2019 to ban conversion therapy on minors and Governor is expected to sign.
- Discrimination
- New York’s Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA)
- Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA)
- The Hate Crimes Act of 2000
- The Dignity for All Students Act (DASA)
- Many counties including New York and Westchester have non-discrimination ordinances protecting gender identity
- NYS Human Rights Law (HRL)
Protects against discrimination and harassment based on race, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation and disability in areas of:
- Employment
- 4+ employees, unless domestic workers
- Housing
- Private or public
- Education
- Private only
- Access to credit
- Public accommodations
- NYS HRL Trans Regulation
NYS HRL Trans regulation explicitly interprets the state Human Rights Law as follows:
- Sex includes gender identity, gender expression, and transgender status
- Disability includes “gender dysphoria or other condition meeting the definition of disability in the Human Rights Law
- Supported by positive NYS court decisions that already considered TGNC people protected under the HRL
- Not an executive order!
- January 16, 2003: Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA):
Unlawful for anyone in New York State to be discriminated against in employment, housing, credit, education and public accommodations because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation. SONDA, in combination with laws prohibiting discrimination based on marital status, together prohibit discrimination against same-sex couples in employment, housing, credit, education, and public accommodations
- January 15, 2019: Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA)
- “Gender Identity” is added as a protected class in the areas of housing, employment and public accommodations.
- Governor Cuomo signed a 2015 executive order that barred discrimination based on gender identity, and this legislations solidifies those protections.
- This legislation has been put forward in the New York State legislature every year since 2003.
- Hate Crimes Act of 2000 provides that a person commits a hate crime when he or she commits a “specified offense” (as defined in the law) and either:
- (a) intentionally selects the person against whom the offense is committed or intended to be committed in whole or in substantial part because of a belief or perception regarding the race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation of a person, regardless of whether the belief or perception is correct, or
- (b) intentionally commits the act or acts constituting the offense in whole or in substantial part because of a belief or perception regarding the race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation of a person, regardless of whether the belief or perception is correct.
The Dignity for All Students Act (DASA)
(N.Y. Educ. Law Sections 10-18, 801-a)
- Prohibits discrimination against, and harassment of, students based on actual or perceived race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation, gender, or sex by school employees or other students on school property or at a school function.
- January 1, 2019: Third Gender Option X on NYC Birth Certificates goes into effect.
- Adults over 18 can alter their birth certificates to “X” so long as they attest via a form that the change “is to reflect my true gender identity.
- No doctor’s note necessary.
