Panel favors hearing on transgender law
If anti-discrimination act is approved, violators could be fined $250 per offense
The Laws and Rules Committee of the Ulster County Legislature has endorsed a resolution to schedule a July 11 public hearing on a proposed law that would prohibit discrimination against people who want to use public accommodations based on gender identity.
The unanimous vote came during a meeting Monday and was to be on the full Legislature’s agenda Tuesday night. (Action at that meeting took place too late for inclusion in this story.)
Committee members noted Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order that covers discrimination against someone who is transgender. But Legislator Jennifer Schwartz Berky, D-Kingston, said the governor’s directive does not provided not enough protection.
“Executive orders issued by the state governor are not the same as legislation passed by the Legislature,” she said. “They are subject to judicial review ... and they might be overturned.”
Berky added that people who consider themselves transgender are not covered by any laws that protect them from “workplace discrimination, harassment and discrimination at school, economic in-
security, housing discrimination ... and health care discrimination.”
The proposed county law defines a transgender person as someone “whose gender and selfimage does not fully accord with the legal sex assigned at birth” and says the intent of the legislation is to encourage the “use of single-sex facilities, such as bathrooms, in a manner that is consistent with an individual’s gender regardless of sex assigned at birth, anatomy, medical history, appearance or the sex indicated on one’s identification.”
Several county lawmakers said they had no objections to scheduling the public hearing even though they did not necessarily support the proposed law.
“I, for one, would like to hear more about what’s going on in the community and why we need this law,” said Legislator Carl Belfiglio, R-Port Ewen.
The proposed law states there would be “full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, services and privileges” at any “places of public accommodations, resort or amusement.”
It adds that business owners and managers could not “directly or indirectly publish, circulate, issue, display, post or mail any written or printed communications, notice or advertisement” stating that services will be withheld based on gender identity.
Complaints about discrimination based on gender identity would be filed with the county Human Rights Commission, and a hearing would be conducted within 30 days. If the commission agrees there was a violation, the offender could be fined up to $250 per instance.