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Move Forward on Pro-LGBT Legislation
The Green Party of Suffolk County, NY is adding their voice to those calling on the NY State Senate to stop blocking two pro-LGBT bills so that they may see a vote. We ask all who feel LGBT individuals deserve equal rights to contact the NY State Senate to urge them to pass these bills.
The first bill, introduced by Sen. Daniel Squadron, is NY Senate bill # S-61-b, also known as GENDA, or the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act. This bill will amend all existing state human/civil rights and nondiscrimination laws to include the category of Gender Identity and Expression, making it illegal to discriminate against transgender or gender-nonconforming people throughout NY State. At this time, only Suffolk County, the New York City Metro area, and several townships in Upstate New York have explicit gender rights protections. A state law is needed to make these laws enforceable, and to make the entire state of NY a place trans and gender-nonconforming people can live in safety and with dignity. While the state has passed recent measures to reinterpret existing definitions of the category “sex” to include “transgender and gender-nonconforming people,” it is not the same as an explicit law to protect all New Yorkers.
The second bill, introduced by Sen. Brad Hoylman, is NY Senate bill # S-121. This bill is designed to ban the use of “conversion therapy” on LGBT youth. Although it has been established that gender identity or sexual orientation cannot be changed, there are still those who believe this can be done, exercising discredited and harmful activity on LGBT youth. California, Maryland, and New Jersey have passed anti-conversion therapy laws, but New York has not. We ask you to contact the Senate committee heads listed below and urge them to let these bills out of committee and to support them.
We urge you to contact your individual NY State Senators, encouraging them to support these bills. Read more »
Filed under: grassroots democracy, Green Party, New York State Politics, social & economic justice | Tagged: discrimination, gender, Hate speech, lgbt | 1 Comment »
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