Colorlines

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Protecting Gender Without Cops

When the managers at an ice cream parlor in upstate New York harassed a transgender woman by calling her names and locking the door when she tried to enter the store, the police took action. They arrested the trans woman for trespassing.The Sylvia Rivera Law Project, an organization providing legal services for low-income people and trans people of color, tried to advocate for the woman but couldn’t because the state’s human rights law doesn’t include protections for gender identity. This might change if a proposed state bill passes.

The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (known as GENDA) would protect people who are routinely kicked out of housing, fired from jobs and harassed in schools and other public institutions because of their gender expression. The bill has passed the state assembly and is up for a vote on the Senate floor. Thirteen other states and the District of Columbia have already enacted similar legislation. But a group of queer justice organizations is not supporting the bill because it would also add “gender identity and expression” to the list of hate crime offenses and result in longer prison terms. Because the same communities vulnerable to violence face increased policing, it’s a move that would “expose our communities to the inherent racism and classism that is rooted in the criminal justice system,” said Pooja Gehi, staff attorney at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, which opposes the hate crime portion of the proposed bill.MORE