As Pride Month comes to a close, we are looking at some of the issues that impacting the LGBTQIA+ community. Recently, the transgender community has been under the microscope in society and in the political sphere. In our Pub Policy series, we spoke with trans advocates about the state of transgender rights in New York and the country as a whole.
Joining us at OH Bar in Albany were Elisa Crespo who serves as executive director of the New Pride Agenda, Julius Faulkner who serves as the TransCare coordinator for the Albany-based In Our Own Voices and Renate Hartman, a trans woman who lives in the Capital Region.
Throughout the conversation, our panelists used terms that everyone might not be familiar with. We are going to break down some of those terms to help move the conversation forward.
The communities of sexual orientation and gender identities that make up the LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual) community are just as diverse as the people who make them up.
Explaining trans
A transgender person is someone who does not identify with the gender that they were assigned at birth. This could be someone who was assigned male at birth, but identifies as a woman or outside of the gender binary. The gender binary is the system of categorizing as strictly male or female. People who don’t identify as exclusively male or female are known as non-binary.
A person who is transgender may begin the medical and/or societal transition of changing their gender. One option for a transgender person to pursue to transition is hormone replacement therapy. This medically supervised process allows someone to raise a certain hormone in their body. A transgender man may take the hormone testosterone rather than estrogen to have their appearance match their gender identity.
Hormone replacement therapy is one of the treatments that people may seek to address their gender dysphoria. According to the American Psychiatric Association, gender dysphoria is the “psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity.”
Why June?
Pride is a celebration of sexual orientation and gender identity communities that make up the LGBTQIA+ community. Pride is celebrated in the month of June, which is the same month in which the Stonewall riots occurred in New York City in 1969.
The Stonewall Inn, a Manhattan bar, is considered the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement. During the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, the New York City Police Department conducted a raid of the bar, which was known as a gay bar. After the police became violent, the bar patrons fought back against the police. The ensuing riots lasted for nearly a week and were believed to have been started by a transgender person of color, Marsha P. Johnson.
Pride legislation
Since the Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, same-sex couples have had the right, nationwide, to get married to the person they love. However, the fight for rights has led to other pieces of legislation aimed at curbing discrimination.
GENDA, the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, a bill passed by the state Legislature in 2019, added gender identity and expression as protected classes under the state’s Human Rights Law. The law bans discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression in housing, employment and public accommodations.
SONDA, the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act, is a law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation whether real or perceived. The bill became law in 2003 after being signed by Gov. George Pataki, a Republican.
Respect for Marriage Act is a federal law that was signed into law in December 2022. The law repealed the Defense of Marriage Act and ensured state recognition of marriages whether they are between two people of the same or opposite genders and interracial marriages.
Equality Act is a proposed bill on the federal level that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation. The bill passed the House of Representatives in February 2021 by a vote of 224 to 206 when Democrats controlled the chamber. However, despite the Senate being under Democratic control, it did not receive a vote.
Organizations featured in roundtable
New Pride Agenda is an advocacy organization, led by one of the panelists in the above conversation Elisa Crespo. The organization works “to advance the economic, health, racial, and gender identity justice needs of marginalized LGBTQIA+ individuals in New York State.” You can find more information on the New Pride Agenda at newprideagenda.org.
In Our Own Voices is an Albany, New York based organization that seeks “to work for and ensure the physical, mental, spiritual, political, cultural, and economic survival and growth of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people of color communities. Julius Faulkner, who participated in our discussion, serves as the TransCare coordinator at In Our Own Voices. You can find more information about the organization at ioov.org.