New York activists renew push for transgender rights bill

by Cody Lyon
EDGE New York City Contributor
Monday Nov 5, 2007

Transgender activists plan to step-up their lobbying efforts in Albany in support of GENDA

Less than a month after lesbian Khadijah Farmer sued the Caliente Cab Company after a male bouncer allegedly kicked her out of the women’s restroom at the popular Manhattan eatery because he thought she was actually a man, a number of LGBT activists and leaders say her case highlights the need the proposed Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act in New York State.



GENDA, which was first introduced in 2003, would ban discrimination based on gender identity and expression in housing, employment and other public accommodations. The bill currently has 72 co-sponsors in the state Assembly and 14 in the Senate. These numbers indicate GENDA could pass next year if it came up for a vote on the Assembly floor.

The bill remains, at least for the time being, in committee due, in part, to Albany’s famously stagnant legislative process. LGBT activists (and their constituents) will almost certainly begin to pressure state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver [D-Lower Manhattan] and his Democratic colleagues to bring up the bill for a vote. The New York State Democratic Party endorsed GENDA early last month but an even greater task remains to convince the majority Republican state Senate to pass the bill.

New York Transgender Rights Organization state director Joann Prinzavelli, a resident of Westchester County, blamed the Assembly leadership for GENDA’s delay.

"The message we’re getting from... Speaker Sheldon Silver’s office is we passed enough LGBT friendly bills this year and we like things the way they are (politically)," she said. "Our friends in the Assembly are letting us down by not voting on and passing this bill."

Empire State Pride Agenda spokesperson Joe Tarver maintained GENDA is necessary to protect transgender New Yorkers.

"A lot of discrimination is not about who you go home to at night; it’s about the fact that you are breaking some kind of gender norm in the eyes of your boss or co-workers," Empire State Pride Agenda spokesperson Joe Tarver said.

New York City activist D’Angello Johnson has been involved in the movement for transgender rights in New York through TransJustice and other organizations. He pointed out transgender people often face discrimination based on their gender identification in the Human Resource Administration, other social service agencies and even in homeless shelters. Johnson adds gender non-conformists often face additional difficulties that gays and lesbians simply don’t because of their gender identity or expression.

"Sexual orientation can be hidden, not purposefully," he said as he pointed out gender identity and expression is "in your face." "You might not know somebody’s sexual orientation right off the bat."

Johnson said he is optimistic about GENDA’s prospects and what he described as the growing climate of inclusiveness among gay and lesbian New Yorkers in regards to gender identity and expression. He further pointed out this struggle follows the path other civil rights movements have taken over the last century.

"I’m optimistic because it’s a process," Johnson said.

Albany, Buffalo, Ithaca, New York City, Rochester along with Suffolk and Tompkins Counties has already added gender identity and expression into their non-discrimination statutes. California, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey and Rhode Island are among the 13 states and the District of Columbia which have enacted similar legislation.

GENDA supporters maintain it is necessary to add gender identity and expression to supersede laws which prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians. But the current debate rages within the context of political wrangling on Capitol Hill and in-fighting among the movement for LGBT rights over the elimination of transgender-specific protections from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Openly gay Congressman Barney Frank [D-Mass.] and other Democratic leaders maintain the elimination of gender expression from the bill was more about politics than morality. Others argue the reality that protections against sexual orientation discrimination alone aren’t enough.

New York transgender activist Melissa Sklarz told EDGE in a recent interview she feels younger people have a greater understanding of the role gender identity and expression plays among gays and lesbians.

"With the younger generation, there’s no difference between the gay and transgender community," she said. "People in their 20s get it - even in their 30s - but over 40, it takes more work and education."

Sklarz added she remains cautiously optimistic about GENDA’s prospects in Albany.

"I see progress with each passing year," she said. "It may be small, you may need night goggles to see it, but yes, I see progress."
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Cody Lyon is a New York freelance writer whose work has appeared in a number of national daily newspapers and New York weeklies. Lyon also writes a political opinion blog at http://codylyonblogolater.blogspot.com

Guest post on ENDA from Congressman Barney Frank

via The Bilerico Project | Daily Experiments in LGBTQ

September 28, 2007

This guest post comes to us from Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA). Congressman Frank is one of two openly gay House members, is the Chair of the Financial Services Committee, and has been a leader in the development of the Employment NonDiscrimination Act.

Being in the legislative minority is easy – pulling together to block bad things does not require a lot of agonizing over tough decisions. Being in the majority is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, we have the ability to move forward in a positive way on important public policy goals. Detracting from that is the fact that it is never possible for us at any given time to get everything that we would like, and so we have to make difficult choices. But it is important to remember that the good part of this greatly outweighs the bad. Going from a situation in which all we can do is to prevent bad things from happening to one in which we have to decide exactly how much good is achievable and what strategic choices we must make to get there is a great advance. The current manifestation of this is the difficult set of decisions we face regarding the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. We are on the verge of an historic victory that supporters of civil rights have been working on for more than thirty years: the passage for the first time in American history by either house of

Gays scornful of senator's statement

By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer via Yahoo! News

NEW YORK - Sen. Larry Craig's "I'm not gay" declaration met with disdain Wednesday from gay activists, many of whom knew for nearly a year — long before his recent arrest — of allegations that the conservative Idaho Republican solicited sex from men in public bathrooms.

They view his case as a prime example of hypocrisy — a man who furtively engaged in same-sex liaisons while consistently opposing gay-rights measures as a politician.

"He may very well not think of himself as being gay, and these are just urges that he has," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "It's the tragedy of homophobia. People create these walls that separate themselves from who they really are."

AFP/Getty Images/File Photo: The US Republican Party, already sullied by sex and influence scandals, is reeling from a new political bomshell -- the arrest of conservative Republican Senator Larry Craig, pictured in 2005, by police probing lewd conduct incidents.(AFP/Getty Images/File/Win McNamee)

In Washington, some of Craig's fellow Republican congressmen began calling for his resignation, terming his conduct inappropriate. The White House expressed disappointment in the case while avoiding a statement of support for Craig.

Craig proclaimed his innocence, and his heterosexuality, on Tuesday after revelations that he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct following his arrest in June at a Minneapolis airport men's room where an undercover officer suspected him of soliciting sex.

But detailed accusations against Craig had been available since last year through an Internet-based activist who had a hand in outing several Republican politicians, including former Rep. Mark Foley, the focus of a House page scandal, and former Rep. Edward Schrock, linked to a gay dating site.

The activist, Mike Rogers, went public last October with allegations that Craig engaged in sexual encounters with at least three men, including one who said he had sex with Craig twice at Washington's Union Station.

The Idaho Statesman published a lengthy story Tuesday, a day after the June 11 arrest was first reported, detailing Rogers' allegations, which Craig has denied.

The newspaper went even further back into Craig's life, talking to other men who claimed they were solicited by him. It also mentioned a congressional scandal in 1982, in which a male page reported having sex with three congressmen, and Craig — although not named by the youth — issued a statement denying any wrongdoing.

The cumulative weight of the allegations served to convince many conservatives — as well as gay activists — that Craig was being untruthful.

"I ask Senator Craig to help us all by doing the right thing: Fess up to God and man, step aside and seek help," said the Rev. Rob Schenck, president of a conservative religious group, Faith and Action.

Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, one of two openly gay members of Congress, chided Craig for hypocrisy but said there was no need for him to resign now.

"It's not an abuse of his office in the sense that he was taking money for corrupt votes," said Frank, D-Mass. "I think people should resign when they have clearly done the job in a way that is dishonest."

Rogers noted that some politicians, when confronted with evidence about same-sex encounters, have acknowledged their homosexuality — such as Frank and the late Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Mass. Others persist in denial, and Rogers contends they are fair game for exposure if they vote against gay-rights causes.

"I'd love for Larry Craig to come out and be honest with the people of Idaho and run as a Senate candidate and see if the Republican Party is the big tent they claim to be," Rogers said. However, he predicted that the Idaho GOP would be eager to get Craig — who is up for re-election in 2008 — out of politics.

Foreman said Craig contributed to his own problems by living in denial.

"For most people living in the closet, and particularly for people in power, they dig themselves in so deeply they can't see a way out," he said. "When they are found out, their life does come crashing down around them — not because they were gay, because of the way they covered it up."

However, Foreman did express some empathy with Craig in regard to the reaction of his GOP Senate colleagues. They have called for an ethics committee review of his case, which they did not do in response to revelations that Sen. David Vitter, R-La., was on the contact list of a Washington-area escort service.

"The double standard is shocking," Foreman said. "We'll throw the closet queer under the bus, but if you see a female prostitute, that's just fine."

The Craig case also raised questions about the phenomenon of male sex in public restrooms — how prevalent is it, and who participates?

The issue has been a source of controversy this summer in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where Mayor Jim Naugle has drawn fire from gay-rights groups for suggesting that such bathroom sex is a significant problem and briefly proposing installation of automated, single-user toilets.

After reports of Craig's arrest, police officials around the country gave widely varying accounts of whether public bathroom sex was a serious problem in their areas.

"My sense is that most of the people who engage in bathroom sex are living closeted lives," Foreman said. "If you're open, you can hook up on line, in a bar or even through your church."

William Leap, an anthropology professor at American University, said his research indicated that up to half of those who engage in male bathroom sex would consider themselves heterosexual.

"You've got several groups of folks," he said. "Happily married men with children who enjoy having sex with men every so often, and also self-identified gay men who enjoy the thrill of anonymous sex."

He suggested that almost every sizable community nationwide has one or more places where men seek out sex with other men. Whether that location becomes notorious, and the setting for arrests, Leap said, depends largely on whether the men using it create a disturbance that bothers others.

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Associated Press writer Andrew Miga in Washington contributed to this report.