(CBS NEWS) – The New York Legislature passed a historic bill Tuesday making gender identity a protected class in areas of housing, employment, and public accommodation, protecting transgender people from discrimination. Democrats in the state legislature have tried to pass the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, or GENDA, for 16 years, but the bill was repeatedly shot down in the historically Republican-controlled state Senate.
As Democrats took a sweeping majority in the state Senate in the 2018 election, they are now taking advantage of complete control of the state government by enacting progressive policies. In 2016, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order directing the New York State Division of Human Rights to adopt regulations protecting transgender individuals from discrimination. GENDA codifies those protections into the New York Human Rights law. The bill also added protections on the basis of gender identity to the state’s hate crimes law. READ MORE
