Gender Identity Discrimination

We are currently working to advance the Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act in the next Maryland legislative session. This bill HB 235, introduced in the House by Delegate Joseline Pena-Melnyk and Delegate Ariana Kelly in the 2011 legislative session, would prohibit discrimination in the areas of employment, housing, and credit. Anti-discrimination protections would exist only as defined in the current law.

No one deserves to be fired, refused work, denied housing, education or credit, or suffer harassment or violence just because of who they are -- but transgender people and those who don't fit gender stereotypes, such as some gay, lesbian, bisexual, and straight people, in Maryland routinely face this type of discrimination and/or violence without some kind of recourse. In order to close the loophole on discrimination in areas of basic rights such as housing or employment, EQMD, along with a number of LGBT and allied organizations, have filed legislation to protect people on the basis of gender identity and expression.

Nationwide, 13 states, Washington D.C., and 132 counties and cities have passed legislation to ban this discrimination in their communities -- including Baltimore City and Montgomery County.

From the 2009 National Transgender Discrimination Survey - Key Findings by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force:

• Double the rate of unemployment: Survey respondents experience unemployment at twice the rate of the population as a whole.
• Near universal harassment on the job: Ninety-seven percent (97%) of those surveyed reported experiencing harassment or mistreatment on the job.
• Significant losses of jobs and careers: Forty-seven percent (47%) had experiences an adverse job outcome, such as being fired, not hired or denied a promotion
• High rates of poverty: Fifteen percent (15%) of transgender people in our sample lived on $10,000 per year or less - double the rate of the general population.
• Significant housing instability: Nineteen percent (19%) of our sample have been or are homeless, 11% have faced eviction and 26% were forced to seek temporary space.

This bill will make explicit the State's commitment to providing people of diverse gender identities and expressions equal protection under the law, and guarantee transgender and gender non-conforming people the opportunity to contribute to their communities and to the local economy. It sends a clear message that everyone should be able to work, go to school, and live without fear in Maryland. This law is about fairness.

About the legislation

Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act

Lead Sponsors: Del. Joseline Pena-Melnyk (District 21) and Ariana Kelly (District 16):

• Bill Summary: This legislation would prohibit discrimination in the areas of employment, housing, and credit. Anti-discrimination protections would exist only as defined in the current law.

How you can help now

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History of transgender equal rights legislation

STATE LAW

In Maryland transgender people are not currently protected under statewide anti-discrimination laws that include coverage for discrimination based on sexual orientation. Baltimore City and Montgomery County provide such protections for the transgender community. Transgender people experience bias in a number of venues related to employment, housing, healthcare, public accommodations and others.

In employment, discrimination against transgender individuals can occur during the application process, employment, promotion and/or termination. An employee may experience gender identity-based discrimination in many instances such as when coming out, transitioning to a different biological sex, discovery of their birth sex, or even mere suspicion of transgender status.

Transgender people also frequently suffer discrimination when health care professionals deny treatment because of gender identity or expression, ridicule a patient, or refuse to recognize the gender identity of a patient. In other areas of public accommodations, transgender people might be refused service at a restaurant or in a specific gender department at a store, or simply ignored by staff. Transgender individuals also may be denied access to social service like shelters or rape crisis centers. Equality Maryland expects workplace decisions to be based on an individual's qualifications and job skills. We ask other jurisdictions to follow the progressive lead of Baltimore City and Montgomery County in outlawing discrimination based on gender identity and expression.

BALTIMORE CITY

On December 6 2002, Mayor Martin O'Malley signed into law Council Bill 02-0857 (PDF, 720 kb), which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or expression in the areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations. The ordinance provides similar protections to transgender people in Baltimore City as those provided to lesbian, gay and bisexual Marylanders under the statewide Anti-Discrimination Act of 2001.

Click here to learn more about this law. If you are considering filing a complaint, click here for more information.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

September 2009

The highest court in Maryland decided that an anti-transgender measure must be removed from the ballot in Montgomery County, MD. The court agreed with plaintiffs that the opposition effort did not collect enough valid signatures, reversing a lower court decision. The measure will not move forward as a result of this decision. The Montgomery County Council in Maryland unanimously passed that law last fall, but opponents quickly launched a signature-gathering effort to place a repeal measure on the ballot.

In March, the county Board of Elections certified those petitions, but a group of Montgomery County voters brought a lawsuit against the Board of Elections challenging its conclusion that enough valid signatures had indeed been collected.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund, Equality Maryland and dozens of volunteers mounted an extensive review of the signatures collected by proponents of the anti-transgender ballot measure. For more than two months — days, nights and weekends — volunteers converged on Task Force headquarters in Washington, D.C., to pore over the 25,000-plus submitted signatures and find flaws that would possibly invalidate the signatures.

ALSO:

In 2007, Governor Martin O'Malley signed an Executive Order banning discrimination based on gender identity and expression in employment for state employees."