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Transsexual Discrimination OK NY Court Rules
A New York State appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit by a AIDS awareness group filed after a landlord refused to renew the organization's lease because transgendered clients were using the building's common-area rest rooms.
Transsexual Discrimination OK NY Court Rules
by Beth Shapiro 365Gay.com New York Bureau
Posted: April 1, 2005 11:01 am ET
(New York City) A New York State appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit by a AIDS awareness group filed after a landlord refused to renew the organization's lease because transgendered clients were using the building's common-area rest rooms.
The suit accused the landlord of illegal eviction and accused the landlord of complaining the transgender clients were using the "wrong" bathrooms.
The ACLU first brought the lawsuit on behalf of the Hispanic AIDS Forum in June 2001. HAF was forced out of its home of 10 years in Jackson Heights, Queens – an epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in U.S. Latino communities.
Emanuel Gold, the Lawyer for the estate of Joseph Bruno, the building's landlord, argued in lower court that transgender people are completely without civil rights protection in New York state.
In October 2003, Justice Marilyn Shafer dismissed the forum's claim of discrimination on the grounds of disability but said the forum could amend it and resubmit it to the court. She let the gender discrimination claim survive.
Arguing before the Appellate Division Gold said women and girls who worked in or visited other offices in the building were startled and frightened when they found " men" in the women's rest rooms.
"If you're biologically a man, if you're born a man, then you use the men's room. There's no bias against anyone."
Gold also argued that the case should be dismissed because city and state anti-discrimination laws did not protect transgendered people in 2000, when the lease dispute arose.
The 5 judge panel agreed and threw out the gender bias claim but said the forum could amend it and replead it before Shafer.
In a 4-1 decision the court said that transgendered people were excluded from bathrooms on the basis of their sex. The ruling said that male-to-female transsexuals are still legally male and that the exclusion based on biological "gender" rather than "self-image" is not discrimination.
Forum lawyer Edward Hernstadt said his client "will continue to litigate this case."
"This is not a bathroom case," Hernstad said. "This is a case about whether transgendered people are covered under New York state and New York City civil rights laws."
©365Gay.com 2005
by Beth Shapiro 365Gay.com New York Bureau
Posted: April 1, 2005 11:01 am ET
(New York City) A New York State appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit by a AIDS awareness group filed after a landlord refused to renew the organization's lease because transgendered clients were using the building's common-area rest rooms.
The suit accused the landlord of illegal eviction and accused the landlord of complaining the transgender clients were using the "wrong" bathrooms.
The ACLU first brought the lawsuit on behalf of the Hispanic AIDS Forum in June 2001. HAF was forced out of its home of 10 years in Jackson Heights, Queens – an epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in U.S. Latino communities.
Emanuel Gold, the Lawyer for the estate of Joseph Bruno, the building's landlord, argued in lower court that transgender people are completely without civil rights protection in New York state.
In October 2003, Justice Marilyn Shafer dismissed the forum's claim of discrimination on the grounds of disability but said the forum could amend it and resubmit it to the court. She let the gender discrimination claim survive.
Arguing before the Appellate Division Gold said women and girls who worked in or visited other offices in the building were startled and frightened when they found " men" in the women's rest rooms.
"If you're biologically a man, if you're born a man, then you use the men's room. There's no bias against anyone."
Gold also argued that the case should be dismissed because city and state anti-discrimination laws did not protect transgendered people in 2000, when the lease dispute arose.
The 5 judge panel agreed and threw out the gender bias claim but said the forum could amend it and replead it before Shafer.
In a 4-1 decision the court said that transgendered people were excluded from bathrooms on the basis of their sex. The ruling said that male-to-female transsexuals are still legally male and that the exclusion based on biological "gender" rather than "self-image" is not discrimination.
Forum lawyer Edward Hernstadt said his client "will continue to litigate this case."
"This is not a bathroom case," Hernstad said. "This is a case about whether transgendered people are covered under New York state and New York City civil rights laws."
©365Gay.com 2005
For more information:
http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/04/040105t...
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IMC Network
Albany Kills Transgender Bias Bill
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: April 3, 2005 4:03 pm ET
(Albany, New York) Legislation to include protections for the transgendered in Albany County has died after a six month struggle to find enough votes to pass it.
The bill had been languishing in the in the Law Committee. If passed it would have added gender identity or expression to the county human rights ordinance which prohibits discrimination in jobs, public accommodations and housing.
The bill's sponsor, Democrat John Frederick, said there was no point in keeping it on the table when there was so little support. By withdrawing it he hopes to bring it back when there is a better indication it would be passed.
"I'm disappointed we couldn't convince 20 legislators (needed for passage) that amending the county's Human Rights Law to protect this vulnerable group of citizens is the right thing to do," Frederick said.
He added that through debate on the bill people have a better understanding now of trans people than they did before the legislation was introduced.
Gay rights groups advocated for the bill last fall in public hearings, but conservative church groups opposed it.
The Association of Politically Active Christians said they had been praying the bill would be dropped.
"Our problem with this bill was that it would have created special rights for people based on lifestyle choices such as cross-dressing and sex-change surgery. When you do that, you create a public policy in favor of those behaviors, instead of dealing with them as you would other problems or mental illnesses," association chair Bill Carlson told the Albany Times Union.
Similar legislation was passed last year by the Albany Common Council, but it applies only to the city.
©365Gay.com 2005
In fact, public toilets cause more uproar
than any other TG issue.
Because some bio-women,
often hassled by bio-males,
fear anyone who has a penis.
I suggest that,
on the contrary,
there's NO NEED FOR MEN-ONLY TOILETS.
Men have nothing to fear.
Let's turn the "men's toilets"
into "all-gender" toilets --
while reserving the "women's toilets"
for "women"
(including post-op transwomen
who don't have penises).
..........