N.Y. Assembly OK's Transgender Rights Bill; Will Senate Follow?

The New York Assembly keeps approving the bill, for the latest time on Monday, while the Senate lets it stall.

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.

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Trudy Ring

April 30 2012 7:13 PM EST

November 17 2015 5:28 AM EST

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The New York State Assembly today passed a bill banning discrimination based on gender identity and expression, but its prospects in the Senate are uncertain.

This is the fifth time the Assembly has passed the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, according to the Empire State Pride Agenda, the statewide LGBT rights group. However, it has stalled in the Senate every time.

The bill passed the Assembly with broad bipartisan support, Pride Agenda reports. The chamber "has consistently set an example on transgender rights, and today is no exception," said Lynn A. Faria, Pride Agenda's interim executive director, in a press release. "Now it is time for the State Senate to remedy the patchwork of protections that cover transgender people in localities and counties across the state and pass this statewide law."

Within the state, cities including Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Ithaca, New York City, and Rochester have passed transgender-inclusive nondiscrimination laws, as have Westchester, Suffolk, and Tompkins counties. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have similar laws.

Antitransgender discrimination is widespread; in a survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality, 74% of transgender people reported experiencing harassment or mistreatment on the job. Support for nondiscrimination legislation is widespread as well, however, as 78% of New Yorkers are in favor of a transgender civil rights bill, Pride Agenda notes.