Gov. Cuomo Announces Regulations to Protect Transgender New Yorkers: Lambda Legal Applauds

(New York, October 22, 2015) — After news outlets announced that Governor Cuomo has directed the New York State Human Rights Division to issue rules protecting transgender New Yorkers in housing, employment, credit and public accommodations Lambda Legal issued the following statement from M. Dru Levasseur, Director of Lambda Legal’s Transgender Rights Project:

“This is a very welcome step —these rules will provide guidance and help alleviate some of the very real problems transgender New Yorkers experience. We thank the Cuomo Administration for working so hard to make this step happen. There has been a long-standing gap in spelling out explicit protections that bar discrimination on the basis of gender identity.

“Transgender people in New York experience high rates of discrimination and violence and are turned away from jobs, rejected by health care providers and are denied a range of services—these new regulations will make clear discrimination is unacceptable.”

Lambda Legal’s Transgender Rights Project works to expand and defend protections for transgender people under federal, state and local laws and other policies. Learn more: http://www.lambdalegal.org/issues/transgender-rights