Transgender Discriminatio Laws

[bobbiemlv]

The governor of Nevada will be signing 3 bills that were passed by the state legislature last week.
CARSON CITY – Despite opposition from Republican legislators, Gov. Brian Sandoval will sign a bill today prohibiting discrimination against transgender workers.

Dale Erquiaga, senior adviser to the governor, said Sandoval will also sign two other bills approved by the Legislature to ban gender discrimination.

Assembly Bill 211, to be signed today, passed the Assembly 29-13 and the Senate 11-10, with all of the opposition coming from GOP lawmakers.

The bill prohibits discrimination in employment based on gender identity or expression. Gender identity or expression, according to the bill, means gender-related identity appearance, expression or behavior of a person, regardless of the person’s assigned gender at birth.

The Assembly on Monday approved the two other anti-discrimination bills on transsexuals in public accommodations and housing. The vote was 29-13 and the bills are on their way to the governor. All 13 "no" votes were cast by Republicans.

Erquiaga said the governor wanted to sign all three at the same time, but the two bills approved Monday haven't arrived in time.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, praised the Legislature for passing Senate Bill 3231 and Senate Bill 368.

Campaign President Joe Solmonese said "an individual’s gender identity and expression should never be the basis for determining access to housing or public accommodations."

Nevada will join 13 other states and the District of Columbia in providing protections based on gender identity.

[annie]

Thanks for posting that, Bob.

I've been following these, in particular SB 331, which will no doubt be of interest to DLVers since it covers "Public Accommodations" in Nevada.

This morning's LVRJ write-up is here:

http://www.lvrj.com/news/transgender-di ... 71174.html

The text of the bill (may not be the final one, see below) is here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/51280214/SB-3 ... Gov365-com

An interesting twist on this has come about in the past few days. One of the trade associations had proposed an amendment which would allow "differential pricing" to remain legal, such as Ladies Night at a bar or Ladies Free at clubs and such. It was my impression that the proposed amendment was to be included in the final bill, but the text at the link above (at least when I last read it) didn't appear to have it. I'm not sure if that provision was in the actual bill that was signed.

In any case, this is great news for our community!

[External Poster]

This posting is from: kumiko yvonne watanabe
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In advance - sorry about the detailed questions....

I'm not so good at legalese - so if this bill becomes law, it deals with
work and work environments as in employed work areas. That
part is clear to me.

"housing and public accommodations" - this is where the details
I'm getting kinda foggy. Housing and Public Accommodations
appears like a catch all gray area.

Definition of accommodate:

1: to make fit, suitable, or congruous
2: to bring into agreement or concord : reconcile
3: to provide with something desired, needed, or suited (as a helpful service,
a loan, or lodgings)
4a : to make room for b : to hold without crowding or inconvenience
5: to give consideration to : allow for <accommodate the special interests of
various groups>

Housing accommodations - Does that include public rented privately owned
casino rooms?

The term public - does this mean only city or state 'public' related areas
as in offices, parks, or municipal housing only, or does it include the
private property public rentals and public areas in casinos or other private
businesses that has public access?

What I am looking at is - does 'public accommodations' mean not only
for room rentals, but related public accommodations related to the facility that
has the rooms or housing, that would include the use of public
restroom facilities in privately owned casinos, shopping centers, etc?

If so, then this law will supercede any rules a privately owned casino may have
already in place that goes against the public law, as in TG use of the restrooms
based on how one is dressed or have to prove they are TG and not a CD if
confronted?

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(This posting was entered by kumiko yvonne watanabe, an external user of MyDLV.)

[bobbiemlv]

I guess Kumiko didn't read the definition of public accomodation

-
--3--

“Place of public accommodation” means:(a) Any inn, hotel, motel or other establishment which provides lodging to transient guests,except an establishment located within a building which contains not more than five rooms forrent or hire and which is actually occupied by the proprietor of the establishment as theproprietor’s residence;(b) Any restaurant, bar, cafeteria, lunchroom, lunch counter, soda fountain, casino or anyother facility where food or spirituous or malt liquors are sold, including any such facility locatedon the premises of any retail establishment;(c) Any gasoline station;(d) Any motion picture house, theater, concert hall, sports arena or other place of exhibitionor entertainment;(e) Any auditorium, convention center, lecture hall, stadium or other place of publicgathering;(f) Any bakery, grocery store, clothing store, hardware store, shopping center or other salesor rental establishment

-
--4--
*54-799*
(g) Any laundromat, dry cleaner, bank, barber shop, beauty shop, travel service, shoe repairservice, funeral parlor, office of an accountant or lawyer, pharmacy, insurance office, office of aprovider of health care, hospital or other service establishment;(h) Any terminal, depot or other station used for specified public transportation;(i) Any museum, library, gallery or other place of public display or collection;(j) Any park, zoo, amusement park or other place of recreation;(k) Any nursery, private school or university or other place of education;(l) Any day care center, senior citizen center, homeless shelter, food bank, adoption agencyor other social service establishment;(m) Any gymnasium, health spa, bowling alley, golf course or other place of exercise orrecreation;(n) Any other establishment or place to which the public is invited or which is intended forpublic use; and(o) Any establishment physically containing or contained within any of the establishmentsdescribed in paragraphs (a) to (n), inclusive, which holds itself out as serving patrons of the described establisment.

[annie]

> What I am looking at is - does 'public accommodations' mean not only
> for room rentals, but related public accommodations related to the facility that
> has the rooms or housing, that would include the use of public
> restroom facilities in privately owned casinos, shopping centers, etc?

IANAL (I come from a family of lawyers, but I am not one) but my interpretation is that "public accommodations" does cover the public parts of such properties.

IMAO, this particular statute (SB 331) was intentionally written to avoid certain language which triggered right-wing backlash upon similar bills introduced in other states. Do a Google search for "bathroom bill" for some sad but eye-opening tidbits.

The language of this bill was very carefully worded, such as in the terminology of "identity and expression", which closes opportunities to circumvent this law.

> If so, then this law will supercede any rules a privately owned casino may have
> already in place that goes against the public law, as in TG use of the restrooms
> based on how one is dressed or have to prove they are TG and not a CD if
> confronted?

The law clearly applies to "gender identity" and "gender expression", which covers just about everything on the TG spectrum.

However, I would not interpret this as a "free pass" the the ladies room just yet.

Casino management and security are notorious for playing games by their own rules, and it may be difficult to assert one's rights under this statute depending on how cooperative (or not) the management and security folks are.

[External Poster]

This posting is from: Cynthia Phillips
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It's been a few years since I looked at a law book, but my guess is that
this verbage - legaleze - roughly follows early civil rights legislation
and is going to follow in the same vein as early equal rights precedent.

This describes "public" accomadations and I would ask: are Nevada
casinos going to want to insist on their "private" property rights, as
they do now, or will they condede to the broader term?? This is not
California, and casinos have different security and business interests
to worry about here. Also, I didn't see any mention of restroom usage
or restroom accomadation. Do casinos in California allow mixed restroom
use along with all other public accomocations, or do they still maintain
separate restrooms while the rest of the state opens both sides to both
sexes?? Would anyone care to predict how this will fly in Nevada once
it's passed? What will be it's results, it's effects; what will it
mean to us?? How far does this bill go and/or how watered down is it??

Legislators are a wiley, weasely bunch and they will look after the
people who put them in office first. They will insist on "the letter"
of the law as being broad enough in scope to protect the interests of
"all" the people, but they will keep it narrow enough to protect
business interests first and foremost.

Cynthia

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(This posting was entered by Cynthia Phillips, an external user of MyDLV.)

[External Poster]

This posting is from: Cynthia Phillips
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I think it's going to boil down to that old ecomomic problem, those
casinos that need the business will allow "public" accomodation and
those which don't won't. It's the old story in Nevada: two steps
forward and one step back; offer them a mile and then give em' half of
it and see who will bitch for the rest of it. Of note, Jane and I found
a "family" restroom in Hooters where an individual could lock the door,
but we had to stand in line until Mom and junior were finished with it.
There were vacant men's and women's RRs' on either side of it but
neither one of us wanted to risk them; Hooters is a youth oriented
casino and we were spotted the minute we walked in the front door. When
in Rome do as the Romans, they say, and visitors to NV will go
right-wing conservative in a blink cause everybody wants to be from NV,
while they're here.

Cynthia

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(This posting was entered by Cynthia Phillips, an external user of MyDLV.)

[bobbiemlv]

On the bill pertaining to public accommodations NRS 651.070 states:

All persons are entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages and accommodation of any place of public accommodation, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity or expression.

Bathrooms are facilities.

[External Poster]

This posting is from: kumiko yvonne watanabe
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Thank you Bob for the clarification, as I said I wasn't sure which is why I
asked.


Kumiko

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(This posting was entered by kumiko yvonne watanabe, an external user of MyDLV.)

[bobbiemlv]

By Ed Vogel
REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU
Posted: Jun. 2, 2011 | 7:29 p.m.

CARSON CITY -- Transgender people in Nevada now have a trifecta of laws to protect them from discrimination.

Gov. Brian Sandoval late Wednesday signed two more bills to prohibit discrimination against transgender men and women. He approved Senate Bill 331, which outlaws discrimination against transgender people in public accommodations, such as restaurants, hotels and stores. He also signed SB368, which prohibits discrimination against them in the rental and sale of housing and property.

The approval of the bills follows Sandoval's decision May 14 to sign AB211, which prohibits job discrimination against transgender people. The new laws go into effect Oct. 1.

The transgender bills were among the 49 bills Sandoval signed on Wednesday night, after the completion of budget negotiations with legislative leaders, and again on Thursday.

Transgender people are those whose expression and personal identity is opposite to the sex they had at birth. There are an estimated 25,000 transgender people in Nevada. Some have undergone sex change operations, and many receive hormone replacement treatment. The Department of Motor Vehicles allows transgender people who have written authorization from their doctors to change their gender designation on their drivers' licenses.

Sandoval signed the anti-discrimination transgender bills although only three of the 26 Republicans in the Legislature -- Assembly members Kelly Kite of Minden, Richard McArthur of Las Vegas and Ed Goedhart of Amargosa Valley -- voted for the public accommodations bill. All 37 Democrats backed that bill.

The housing discrimination bill received support of every Democrat, along with Assembly Republicans Kite, McArthur and Goedhart and Senate Republicans Mike McGinness of Fallon and Ben Kieckhefer of Reno.

The bills were sponsored by Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas; Sheila Leslie, D-Reno; and Assemblyman Paul Aizley, D-Las Vegas.