LGBTQIA+ Caucus Co-Chairs Erik Bottcher and Tiffany Cabán.
Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit
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Metropolis lawmakers are introducing a bundle of payments supposed to shore up help for transgender, gender non-conforming, non-binary, and intersex (TGNCNBI) New Yorkers in a neighborhood effort to counteract the Trump administration’s ongoing assaults on transgender people.
The legislative bundle, pushed primarily by members of the Metropolis Council’s LGBTQIA+ Caucus and another metropolis lawmakers, goals to strengthen entry to gender-affirming care, bolster outreach and authorized sources for TGNCNBI people, create a plan to help TGNCNBI migrants, and extra.
LGBTQIA+ Caucus Co-Chair Tiffany Cabán described the legislative bundle as “one of many steps we must take towards protecting and uplifting New York’s transgender and gender non-conforming neighbors.”
“Our City Council must fight for a safe, equitable, joyful future for the trans community,” Cabán stated in a written assertion.
The town-based effort comes after State Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal unveiled new laws on the state stage that may require Medicaid to cowl gender-affirming care in New York State — no matter federal funding — and ban healthcare discrimination towards protected lessons, together with on the premise of gender identification, including to present protections underneath the state and metropolis’s Human Rights Regulation.
One invoice championed by Cabán aspires to create a city-driven “know your rights” marketing campaign. Int. 1200 would require the town to guide a public schooling program to show the general public in regards to the rights and sources accessible to TGNCNBI people. This system would come with details about discrimination protections, harassment, hate crime protections, gender-affirming care entry, authorized title and gender marker modifications, and community-based organizations serving TGNCNBI people.
The laws is co-sponsored by LGBTQIA+ Caucus Co-Chair Erik Bottcher and fellow LGBTQIA+ Caucus members Lynn Schulman, Chi Ossé, and Crystal Hudson, who previously served as co-chair of the LGBTQIA+ Caucus. Councilmembers Shahana Hanif and Farah Louis are additionally co-sponsors.
A separate invoice proposed by Ossé, Int. 1204, would require the commissioner of the Division of Well being and Psychological Hygiene to create a citywide well being agenda geared in direction of TGNCNBI New Yorkers to deal with well being disparities between TGNCNBI and cisgender New Yorkers. Hanif, Bottcher, Hudson, Cabán, Louis, and Lincoln Restler are co-sponsors.
In the meantime, a invoice led by Hanif, Int. 1201, would ban actions that stop entry to amenities offering gender-affirming care. Violating the legislation may lead to legal expenses or civil fits, in accordance with the invoice, and it might add gender-affirming care to the checklist of actions that may be lined underneath a person’s personal proper of motion within the occasion of interference with reproductive or endocrine medical care as a consequence of a lawsuit.
Often known as the AFFIRM Act, that invoice was written with Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and is co-sponsored by Councilmembers Sandy Nurse; Carmen De La Rosa and Carmina Rivera; Lincoln Restler; and Louis, Bottcher, Ossé, and Hudson.
Calling out the White Home’s erasure of transgender people throughout an illustration close to the Stonewall Inn on Feb. 14.Donna Aceto
The legislative proposal follows a pair of federal courtroom rulings blocking enforcement of two transphobic govt orders that prompted a number of hospitals in New York Metropolis to limit gender-affirming care. Govt Order 14187, entitled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” sought to ban federal funding for gender-affirming care for people underneath the age of 19 and direct the Division of Well being and Human Providers secretary to “take all appropriate actions to end” gender-affirming care, “including regulatory and sub-regulatory actions.” One other govt order sought to erase transgender people solely.
Int. 1203, one other invoice led by Ossé — and co-sponsored by Hanif, Bottcher, Hudson, Cabán and Louis — would require the chair of the Fee on Gender Fairness to create a plan to help the arrival of TGNCNBI migrants who’re 24 years of age and youthful.
Metropolis lawmakers additionally launched 4 resolutions calling on the state to take motion on a number of fronts to assist TGNCNBI folks throughout the state, together with calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to signal a invoice requiring consent to course of a person’s well being info, calling on the state Well being Division to require hospitals to stick to the World Skilled Affiliation for Transgender Well being’s Requirements of Care 8, and inspiring the State Legislature and the governor to ban out-of-state entry to the state’s prescription monitoring program for sure medicines, resembling abortion medication, hormone remedy, or puberty blockers.
Lawmakers are additionally bringing consideration to a presconsidered decision calling for the state to cross a invoice defending delicate well being info of sufferers — and that features abortion or gender-affirming care — and giving sufferers the proper to keep away from disclosing that info.
Bottcher, for his half, pressured that he and his colleagues are dedicated to serving TGNCNBI people within the metropolis regardless of the hostility of the Trump administration.
“We stand in total solidarity with our transgender siblings,” Bottcher stated in a written assertion. “While the Trump Administration is trying to erase the very existence of trans people, we are advocating for policies that greatly expand protections for trans New Yorkers. At the heart of the LGBTQIA+ rights movement, New York City must be a beacon of support and love for our entire community. An attack on one part of our community is an attack on all of us. The LGBTQIA+ Caucus will protect the rights of our community at all costs.”
Hanif stated she is introducing the AFFIRM Act as a result of lawmakers should use “every tool available” to enhance the panorama for transgender sufferers.
“Anti-trans protests are on the rise nationwide, fueled by bigots emboldened by President Trump’s dangerous trans erasure agenda,” stated Hanif, who voiced her dedication to creating certain the town is a protected place for trans people to hunt essential medical providers.
Hudson emphasised the purpose that the legislative bundle serves to learn all New Yorkers as a result of defending weak communities helps everybody.
“The federal government is making consistent and aggressive efforts to undermine the rights of the trans community. As a member of the New York City Council’s LGBTQIA+ Caucus, I am proud that our body is matching its solidarity with real action,” Hudson stated in a written assertion. “This legislative bundle works to enhance requirements for trans healthcare, strengthen privateness protections, defend entry to gender-affirming care, and takes essential steps to uphold basic human rights at each the town and state stage.
