Proposed transgender protection law dropped

Bill sponsor: GOP changes would make measure useless

A proposed Ulster County law that would have given transgender residents legal protection against discrimination was withdrawn from consideration Tuesday after a series of changes were made by Republicans that the sponsor said had rendered the measure useless.

The law would have prohibited discrimination based on gender identity against people who want to use public accommodations and would have fined businesses for discrimination against those who are transgender.

The law defined a transgender person as someone “whose gender and self-image 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.”

But Republican county lawmakers in a series of amendments so substantially altered the law that the Legislature’s attorney said the matter

would have to be put up again for a public hearing.

The proposal in July had gone to a public hearing attended by dozens of residents.

Legislator Jennifer Schwartz Berky, who sponsored the legislation, withdrew the measure, saying the changes were so significant “this is no longer my law.”

Among the changes made by Republicans was the elimination of a provision that would have empowered the Ulster County Human Rights Commission to levy penalties against businesses that discriminate against transgender individuals.

Republicans have argued that the county doesn’t have the ability, absent state authorization, to empower the Human Rights Commission to levy fines.

Richard Parete, a Democrat from Stone Ridge who caucuses with the Republican, said the law as proposed by Berky would have given transgender

The proposal in July had gone to a public hearing attended by dozens of residents.

individuals more rights than others who might be discriminated against.

“The law as currently written, if they deny service to a transgender individual, they can be fined. If they deny it to an African-American, they cannot. That to my mind is unfair,” said Parete.

Legislature Chairman Ken Ronk, R-Wallkill, offered a similar sentiment, quoting George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” in saying the law would create a situation where some people are “more equal” than others.”

Berky, though said that blacks and other groups people already are considered a “protected class” and enjoy certain protections under state and federal law that transgender people don’t have.