California Governor Brown Signs Trans Bills Into Law

Yesterday was a historic day for transpeople in the state of California as Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed AB 887, the Gender Nondiscrimination Act and AB 433 the Vital Statistics Modernization Act into law.

For those of you in California who weren't focused on what was happening in Sacramento, here's what those two bills do and what they do to help a transbrother and transsister out.

• The Gender Nondiscrimination Act (AB 887) takes existing protections based on gender and spells out "gender identity and expression" as their own protected categories in our nondiscrimination laws. By making these protections explicit, people will more clearly understand California's nondiscrimination laws, which should increase the likelihood that employers, schools, housing authorities, and other institutions will work to prevent discrimination and/or respond more quickly at the first indications of discrimination.

• The Vital Statistics Modernization Act (AB 433) will alleviate the confusion, anxiety and even danger that transgender people face when we have identity documents that do not reflect who we are. The bill will streamline current law and clarify that eligible petitioners living or born in California can submit gender change petitions in the State of California. The Vital Statistics Modernization Act conforms California's standards to the standards set by the United States Department of State for gender changes on passports, and it makes common-sense changes to the law that ensure the process is simple for qualified petitioners to navigate.

In a nutshell,  The Gender Nondiscrimination Act according to the San Francisco based Transgender Law Center makes 'gender identity and expression' its own protected rights category at work, at school, in housing, in public accommodations and in other settings.

AB 433, the Vital Statistics Modernization Act, makes it easier for transgender people to get a court-ordered gender change and updated birth certificate.

Very happy for you peeps in California, and hope that those laws that you enjoy get replicated elsewhere

Lawrence, KS Passes Trans Protective Law

Back in February Manhattan, KS became the first city in the state to pass a trans rights law.  Noting the competitive rivalry between the two cities who are homes to Kansas State and KU I wrote at the time

Since there's always been this rivalry between Manhattan and Lawrence because of the two universities they house, time will tell if Lawrence, the home of the University of Kansas, will step up to the plate and protect its TBLG citizens against discrimination like Manhattan did.

Well, can I call it or what?  Lawrence, KS just passed a trans protective law on a 4-1 vote last night.

The Lawrence City Commission during a two hour meeting in front of an overflow crowd of 70 people added gender identity to the city's anti-discrimination code, making it illegal for employers, landlords and most businesses to discriminate against people who are transgender.

The lone NO vote was from Lawrence City Commissioner Mike Amyx, who said he was not comfortable overruling two previous votes by the city's Human Relations Commission that recommended the ordinance not be adopted.  

Mayor Aron Cromwell had an opposing viewpoint from Amyx, and stated the vote to change the city code was a matter of opposing discrimination.
 
"This is not about morality," Mayor Cromwell said. "It is about discrimination."

It sure is Mayor Cromwell.   Congratulations for stepping up in the civil rights game and matching the 'Little Apple' in protecting the civil and human rights of the trans citizens of Lawrence. 


TransGriot Note: Was just advised Manhattan, KS has regressed on the TBLG inclusive law they passed originally on a 3-2 vote.  Tea Klux Klan legislators ended up on the Manhattan City Council in April and reversed what had positively been done.  

Elections matter people, and it's much harder to keep your rights than it is the get them in the first place, especially when you have religious zealots and bigots that wont rest until you have none.

Trans Rights Bill Reintroduced In Canada

One of the legislative casualties because of the Canadian election call earlier this year was Bill C-389, the Trans Rights Bill authored by now retired NDP Critic Bill Siksay that passed the House of Commons 143-135 on Third Reading but was stuck in the Conservative controlled Senate .

The private member's bill Siksay was sponsoring for the third time had it passed would have given trans Canadians explicit rights under the Human Rights Act and the hate-crimes provision of the Criminal Code.

MP Fry was a supporter of the previous bill, and promised the retiring Siksay that if C-389 failed , she would bring it up in the next Parliament.

"I said, 'Look, if you’re leaving and the bill doesn’t get through, I will bring it back for you,'” According to Xtra, Fry sent a letter to the NDP’s Libby Davies about the issue. “I said, 'It’s not about you or me, or the NDP or the Liberals, it’s about trans persons, so let’s come together and work on it.'”

Now that the fall session of Parliament is about to get cranked up north of the border, despite the fact that the Conservatives have a majority in the House of Commons, the Liberals and the NDP are joining forces to try to get civil rights coverage for transgender Canadians.

On September 19, making good on her promises to Siksay and the promise she made during the campaign to reintroduce this bill during the next Parliament if she won reelection, Vancouver Centre Liberal MP Dr. Hedy Fry introduced Bill C-276 in the House of Commons, followed on September 21 by the introduction of Bill C-279 by NDP queer issues critic Randall Garrison of Esquimalt-Juan De Fuca .

Bill C-389 had some Conservative support that included two Cabinet ministers, but now that they have a muscular 167 seat majority, will those Conservative MP's support it?

Fry's Bill C-276 is an exact redraft of the previous Siksay bill, and would amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to include gender identity and gender expression as prohibited grounds of discrimination.  

It would also amend the Criminal Code to outlaw hate speech that advocates genocide against groups distinguished by gender, and to allow evidence that a crime was motivated by hate based on gender to be taken into account during sentencing.

In addition to Dr. Fry's and MP Garrison's support, it also has the support of Green Party leader MP Elizabeth May.

Will be interesting to see how far this one goes in this Conservative controlled chamber.

For Transpeople, Having A J-O-B Is Fundamental To Human Rights

'We talk a lot about human rights, but I don't know of any human right that is more important than having a job' 

William Norris said that in an April 1978 TIME magazine interview and that is still as true today as when he spoke these words back during the disco era.  Having a job is fundamental to survival in society and especially in the United States because everything flows from it.  The money you earn from that job helps pay for food, shelter, clothing, and the other necessities of life.

That point is backed up by the right to work being mentioned in Article 23 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Article 23.

• (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
• (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
• (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
• (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

I guess the GL community agrees with the UN Declaration.  When they sought to secure civil rights coverage for themselves anti-discrimination measures for employment were the first thing tackled (and you gleefully cut transpeople out of in many cases) before you started in 2003 on this all marriage all the time push. 

It's why I repeatedly make the point when I talk about in rainbow community discourse what we should be focusing on strategy wise, I'll continue to assert that having a J-O-B and laws in place to protect it is far more important in the TBLG activism scheme of things than the ability to get married.  

As I have said more than a few times to marriage obsessed GL peeps, what good will it do for you to get married if your oppressors can still deny you a job?   

Besides you can't get married unless you have the J-O-B to pay for the wedding license, the wedding ring, the wedding, the wedding reception and the hall to have it in.   

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) wrote in a 1975 essay  'The Politics of Unemployment', 'To deprive a person of work is to negate a portion of his/her humanity."   Nowhere is that point driven home more clearly than for TBLG persons of color.whose humanity is constantly under attack.

There's also nothing more dehumanizing, stress inducing and deflating to your self esteem as when you don't have a job.  The reverse is true when you have one.   The fact that we transpeople have to pay for the privilege of being our kind of rainbow person exacerbates that.

It costs money for hormones, the medical visits, electrolysis/laser, surgery, and identity paperwork changes.   That's before we even begin to touch on paying for food, shelter and clothing out of whatever income you earn and don't have budgeted for transition purposes.  In the United States, we also have to deal with the reality that a job is the entry way to accessing a health care system that refuses to cover many of the costs associated with trans health care.. 

In an economy with currently 9.1% unemployment, 14% in the Latino community, Black people almost double that national rate at 16.7% and Black transpeople face almost triple that national rate at 26%, you can understand why JOBS, JOBS, JOBS and passing an inclusive ENDA has a much higher priority, especially in the POC rainbow community than passing same gender marriage. 

We know all too well that having a J-O-B is not only fundamental to our human rights, but sadly also being recognized as fellow human beings.