I missed this when it happened, but recently Rob Andrews laid the smack down during a committee hearing on transgender discrimination in the workplace. The first speaker in this clip, a transgender man, spoke about some of the challenges facing transgender employees.
Following the testimony of the first speaker, Congressman Andrews gave a shout out to Garden State Equality for their great work and then moved onto questioning the second speaker about his opposition to equal rights for transgender employees in the workplace ...
If we would just treat people like people and not worry about their circumstances, we wouldn't have this problem. I can only hope that years from now when I have children, people will look back on these debates and say how foolish it was that we even spent our time worrying about these things.
By a vote of 31-5, the New Jersey State Senate has just passed a bill to outlaw discrimination against New Jersey's transgender citizens. Voting "no" were five Republican Senators: Bark, Ciesla, Kavanaugh, Littell and Palaia. The New Jersey State Assembly is expected to pass the bill this Thursday.
The bill would add a citizen's "gender identity or expression" as a basis for protection under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. The bill has been a top priority for Garden State Equality, which has taken a number of bold measures to advance the bill; and for the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey, the statewide transgender organization.
In 2005 and 2006, Garden State Equality aired the first television commercial in American history on discrimination faced by the transgender community. You may watch the commercial at www.GardenStateEquality.org and by clicking on Trans Equality on our home page.
