Matt Sledge
Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act: Transgender New Yorkers Still Waiting For Equality
First Posted: 10/5/11 01:44 PM ET Updated: 10/5/11 01:44 PM ET
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/05/gender-expression-non-discrimination-act-transgender-new-york_n_996256.htmlNine years ago gay and lesbian activists made a decision. To get a non-discrimination bill they desperately wanted past New York's state legislature, they cut out protections for their transgender allies. The law passed, but a bitter rift in the state's LGBT community was born -- one that is still being mended.
Gay and lesbian New Yorkers could eat at the restaurant of their choice or live in the apartment of their dreams without fear of discrimination. Transgender New Yorkers would have no such protections. A near-weekly stream of headlines attests to the struggles they still face: an Occupy Wall Street protestor says the NYPD mistreated him because he is transgender, the state has rejected the possibility of using Medicaid to pay for transgender surgery and in August a Brooklyn man stabbed his transgender girlfriend to death.
