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Transgender people and their supporters, gathering Nov. 13 at the University of Pittsburgh, concluded that next year would be crucial for securing equal rights and protections from Harrisburg.
“We must see the words ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender expression and identity’ in our statute[s] in order to make sure everyone has equal protection under the law,” said Stephen Glassman, chairman of the state Human Relations Commission. The HRC investigates statewide cases of alleged discrimination based on race, religion and other status categories — but it has no jurisdiction over claims of discrimination against people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. A House bill adding those protections died in committee last year.
Glassman expects to see new legislature introduced in Harrisburg early next year. One measure would protect LGBT people against discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation. A second bill would add LGBT people to those protected under the state’s hate-crimes law. Once included under the state’s Ethnic Crimes and Intimidations Act, protections for gays were stripped from the law two years ago after a Lansdowne, Pa., group, Repent America, won a lawsuit that hinged on how the bill had been originally passed, not on its substance.
Bobby Peck of Wilkinsburg, a 43-year-old female-to-male transgender who attended the meeting, trains medical personnel across the country about issues in trans lives. “Many people are very uncomfortable with people who are gender variant,” he said. “Right now, it is an illness to be a transgender,” at least according to the latest diagnostic manual published by the American Psychiatric Association, “just like it used to be [an illness] to be a homosexual. Of course, transgender people have a hope that that [designation] will be removed.”
Je’amour Matthews, 48, of North Braddock, transitioned from male to female more than 30 years ago. The discrimination is certainly real, she said: “I’ve been denied housing, lost jobs. I was told to my face, ‘You should be thankful we hired you.'”
“What I find is interesting,” said Miranda Bey, 36, of McMurray, who is also a trans female, “is that a great deal of trans women never experienced discrimination when they lived lives [as] white males. During and after gender transition, the true face of our world and community comes out,” despite a general increase in acceptance.
Last year’s attempt at a new anti-discrimination bill garnered 78 co-sponsors in the House, but never made it out of committee. It faced opposition from the state branch of Focus on the Family, the Pennsylvania Family Institute, which called the bill “a radical amendment to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act” that would “threaten religious liberty and individual conscience, and the right of business operators, landlords and even churches from making [sic] appropriate moral choices.”
Currently, 20 states have protections for sexual orientation in their laws, while 13 states and Washington, D.C., include protections for gender identity and expression. The HRC’s Glassman fears Pennsylvania will miss out on its chance to pass such a measure once Ed Rendell leaves the governor’s post in 2010.
Among the 30 states lacking statewide protections for LGBT people, Pennsylvania has the greatest number of individual municipalities with anti-discrimination laws: 14, up from six in 2002. Trans protections in Pittsburgh were added in 1996 to a law that already protected gay people. In Philadelphia, protections for transgender residents were added in 2000. Other local governments are weighing similar measures. In Allegheny County, 11 out of 15 county councilors support anti-discrimination legislation that protects both gender identity and sexual orientation. A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 25.
For the two state anti-discrimination bills to be proposed next year, Democratic state Rep. Dan Frankel of Squirrel Hill urged those attending the meeting to seek personal contact with their legislators. Even if a legislator would actively support such changes, Frankel says, voters can try to convince them to let the bills come up for a vote.
“Everyone in this room has a personal story that is powerful and meaningful and represents something that could be a teachable moment for a legislator,” added the HRC’s Glassman. “They need to see human beings who are transgender.” Trans Working Group: Emilia@transburgh.com or 412-383-2233.
This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2008.
from the desk of http://www.strongwomen.info:
should i ask my congresswoman about what should happen to a vet’s office with a staff consisting of 13 men?
i am writing because, in this day and age, sexism should not be a part of any doctor’s office. i am violated every time i walk into my doctor’s office (it is actually a doctors’ office), and even if i were to find and get services from another office which embraced diversity and tolerance, i’d know that there is one set of doctors who do not. i can’t just ignore gender-based intolerance, and therefore am writing to as many equality advocates as i can. i wouldn’t mind seeing this place put out of business.
there is a veterinary hospital in new brighton (pennsylvania) called “green valley veterinary hospital”. it is a very sexist organization, seen from their website (http://greenvalleyvet.vetstreet.com/our_st…) or from a simple entry into the place. NEWSFLASH: it is now 2013 and doctors no longer are of one specific gender – i don’t assume anything regarding fetus-wide hips or broad/protective shoulders when i hear the word “doctor” – so i feel that maureen a. mcelhinny (who owns the business) only employs 12 other members OF HER OWN GENDER because she has sexist ideals and because she is spiteful that females must wear high-heeled shoes and shoulderpads to appear as relevant as men are. oh, she’s probably spiteful that females must use chainsaws in lumberjack competitions, as well, but that’s not saying anything about the “coney island hot dog-eating competition” having to add a “ladies’ division” in order for the smaller (lesser) stomachs to triumph.
…that’s not saying anything about gender-based sports teams and gender-based military requirements, gender-based poker nights at the casino or gender-based “do it HERself” workshops at the homo depot…
i feel that if there was ANY office which employed 13 men – and employed nobody to represent the gender that is not as tall/wide/strong/able to eat as much – then they’d be put out of business by boycotts or by feminists or by the equality police. it is incomprehensible that, in this day and age, there is such a sexist and bigoted business that is not being boycotted or exposed for the intolerance that their hiring practices spew.
if such blatant anti-man sexism should continue at businesses like green valley veterinary hospital in new brighton, i fear that people will stop regarding wombn as members of the lesser gender – i feel that people will simply ignore the fact that females were designed for motherhood, despite how females bleed eggs from their wombs and spurt milk from their MOMmary glands. this will lead females to think that they are just as able as men are when it comes to their abilities to “protect and serve,” when females are really only intended to “protect and serve” lunch. take a look at their backs (http://www.jaggedlittledyl.com/sitepics/pa…“), for crying out loud.
i am writing because, in this day and age, sexism should not be a part of ANY professional office. i am violated every time i walk into the office, and even if i were to find another doctor who embraced diversity and tolerance, i’d know that there is one that does not. that one is green valley veterinary hospital in new brighton, pennsylvania.
i am writing because i feel it is my duty to expose the sexism of green valley veterinary hospital, i am writing so that activists will (through law or through boycotts) put them out of business unless they change their hiring practices.
thank you,
dylan terreri, i
sheldon cooper, ii
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“When I’m hungry, I eat. When I’m thirsty, I drink. When I feel like saying something, I say it.” – Madonna
http://www.jaggedlittledyl.com/essays