Victory! New York City Adopts Policy Ensuring Transgender People Equal Access to Marriage Licenses

We are happy to announce that the city of New York has adopted a new policy designed to ensure that transgender people have equal access to marriage licenses. The policy was adopted as part of an agreement to resolve threatened legal action involving a transgender couple. The couple wishes to remain private and we refer to them as Jane and John.

Jane and John are both transgender. They are an opposite-sex couple who have been in a relationship for over a decade. In Dec. 2009, they attempted to marry in the Bronx. They fulfilled all of the requirements for receiving a marriage license in New York City and presented their government-issued photo identification – the only identification required by the City Clerk’s office. Rather than issuing the marriage license, the City Clerk refused and instead demanded that Jane and John produce their birth certificates before they could be married – something not required of other marriage license applicants.

Under the terms of the new policy, issued on Feb. 7, 2011, once a marriage license applicant produces the required photo ID, the City Clerk may not request additional proof of sex. Moreover, City Clerk employees are forbidden from considering the applicant’s appearance or preconceived notions related to gender expression when deciding whether to issue a marriage license.

“Transgender people are challenged all the time about their status as men and women,” said TLDEF executive director Michael Silverman. “Our clients are legally entitled to marry and were denied that right just because they are transgender. We applaud the City Clerk’s office for adopting this policy and for taking steps to ensure that this does not happen again.”

In addition to the adoption of the new policy, the agreement to resolve the couple’s claims calls for the City Clerk to apologize to Jane and John, to institute training for all City Clerk employees on issues relating to gender identity and gender expression, and to ensure that Jane and John are free to marry at a time and place of their choosing.

In addition to TLDEF, the legal team on this matter included Carmine Boccuzzi, David Brown and Nathan Horst of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. We are grateful for their assistance.

Thank you for your support of our work. We will continue to update you on this and other case developments.

Courtesy of Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund

“GENDA” Passes Assembly

ALBANY - The bill to protect transgender people under the State Human Rights Law was approved by the Assembly today by a vote of 91-40, with bi-partisan support.  The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) is now in the State Senate Investigations and Government Operations Committee.  If it passes the Senate, Governor David Paterson has said he will sign it into law.

“This is an important and overdue protection of human rights,” said Assembly Member Richard N. Gottfried, sponsor of bill, A.5710-A.  “The experience of transgender individuals, and the discrimination they face, are unique, and should be specifically identified and unambiguously rejected in our State’s civil rights laws, just like discrimination based on age, sex, sexual orientation, religion, race, disability, or ethnicity.”

The transgender community is not protected under current state law.

“By eliminating the fear of losing their jobs, homes, and fair treatment in communities across the state, we can make certain that every New Yorker receives equal opportunities regardless of gender identity,” said Gottfried.

Albany, Buffalo, Ithaca, New York City, and Rochester, and the counties of Suffolk and Tompkins have already enacted local GENDA laws.  Thirteen states, Washington, D.C., and over 90 other localities across the country have passed transgender-inclusive civil rights legislation.  Over 150 Fortune 500 companies, including 26 located in New York State, have policies in place to protect their transgender workers.

link: http://www.empirestatenews.net/News/20100303-3.html

“Replace Monserrate with Jose Peralta! Volunteer NOW!”

Don’t get mad about Hiram Monserrate breaking his promise to vote for the marriage equality bill in the State Senate. Get even—NOW!

There are a number of important activities coming up this weekend and leading up to the March 16 Special Election where volunteers are critical to electing pro-LGBT Assemblymember Jose Peralta to the State Senate in Queens.

The Peralta campaign needs volunteers at their campaign office in Jackson Heights, Queens to phone bank and canvass on Saturday, March 6 and Saturday, March 13 starting at 10 AM; they also need help in Get Out the Vote efforts on Election Day—Tuesday, March 16. In addition, we will be doing our own phone banking for Peralta in the days leading up to the election.

Please contact Erin Drinkwater at edrinkwater@prideagenda.org or 212-627-0305 ext. 114 for details on any of these activities.  Let her know if you are interested in phone banking and canvassing in Queens, phone banking at the Pride Agenda office, or both!

“Civil rights for all of my constituents and for all New Yorkers has always been a priority for me,” said Assemblyman José Peralta. “I have worked towards full equality for LGBT New Yorkers in my seven years as an Assemblymember, and I will be proud to continue this work as a member of the State Senate. I think my record in the Assembly demonstrates that when I take a principled stand on an important human rights issue like marriage equality, I don’t suddenly change my mind when the bill comes up for a vote.”

It’s time to get to work to elect Jose Peralta to the State Senate on March 16.

(From the Empire State Pride Agenda.)

New Proposed Changes in the Upcoming DSM-V

Feb 10, 2010
The American Psychological Association’s (APA) DSM-5 Task Force has announced its proposed revisions and additions to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), the text used by US mental health professionals to diagnose mental disorders. The revised version of the “Bible” of American Psychology is set to be published in 2013.

The task force describes a number of proposed changes related to “Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders.”

Significant proposed changes include:

Changing the name of “Gender Identity Disorder” to “Gender Incongruence,” in response to a survey of transgender people. The task force states that the name change is intended to reduce the stigmatization of transgender people’s “condition.” Additionally, what was previously referred to as “a strong and persistent cross-gender identification” is now being referred to as “a marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender.”

Within “Gender Incongruence (GI),” referring to “the other gender” instead of “the other sex.” The stated purpose of this change is two fold: (1) to be able to diagnose intersex people (people with “disorders of sex
development”) with GI; (2) to allow people who have successfully transitioned to be free of this diagnosis.

(Check out full proposed changes to the DSM-V here.)

NYS Legislature Provides Medical Decision Making Authority to Same-Sex Partners

After being stalled in the Legislature for 17 years, the New York State Senate has finally joined the Assembly in passing the Family Health Care Decisions Act that enables a loved one to made health care decisions when the patient is not able to do so. The bill places a same-sex or opposite-sex domestic partner, just like a spouse, ahead of a surviving child or parent in making these decisions. Governor Paterson has said he will sign the bill into law when it is sent to him.

New York has been one of just two states where without a health care proxy, no one—not a domestic partner, spouse, or family member—could make health care decisions when the patient lacked the ability to do so. This gap in state law has sometimes forced loved ones to seek medical decision-making authority from a judge at the very time they should be focusing all their attention on caring for their partner.

Now, loved ones including same-sex spouses who were married out-of-state or fit the domestic partnership definition will have the ability to make these decisions. The domestic partnership definition is expansive, and includes those who may not be able to formally record their relationship because there is no domestic partner registry where they live. The Pride Agenda was instrumental in the redrafting of this domestic partner language to make sure it was uniform with all other domestic partner definitions in state law, such as that found in the hospital visitation bill that became law in 2004 and the control of bodily remains bill that became law in 2006.

Since same-sex couples still do not have the legal right to get married in New York State, the Pride Agenda has worked hard over the past few years to make sure LGBT families have protections in state law covering important end-of-life situations. When the Governor signs this measure into the law, the three most common situations where blood relatives sometimes seek to exclude a LGBT partner—hospital visitation, medical decision-making and the ability to make decisions about the disposition of partner remains—can no longer occur in New York State.

“We thank the Assembly and Assemblymember Gottfried for leading this effort for so many years and are glad the Senate has finally passed this measure and the Governor will be signing it into law,” said Executive Director Alan van Capelle.

(press release from Empire State Pride Agenda)