N.J. bans gender
switch bias
By MICHAEL RISPOLI,
thnt.com Online, June 17, 2007
TRENTON — When Jillian T.
Weiss made the change from male to female back in 1998, she found it hard to get
a job as a lawyer.
"People were unwilling to have me work with them when they could tell when I was
transitioning," said Weiss.
Only able to get a job as a legal secretary, Weiss had to "go back" and work her
way up. After getting a doctorate degree, Weiss now is an assistant
professor of law and society at Ramapo College. Weiss says how she
expresses her gender is a nonfactor with her students and coworkers.
Weiss said her experience beginning nearly a decade ago is similar to what many
transgender people deal with in the workforce. The state, however, is
looking to end this type of workplace discrimination.
Beginning today, New Jersey becomes the sixth state to explicitly prohibit
transgender discrimination. The change to the state's Law Against
Discrimination adds "gender identity and expression" to the list of categories
already protected against discrimination involving employment, along with public
accommodation, contracts, housing, credit and union membership.
"What this is going to do is provide a push in for people so they can start to
get jobs," said Weiss, who holds workshops with corporations and small
businesses to teach workplace diversity. "Even though there will continue
to be unemployment, they will find that it is going to relieve some of the
frustrations they have that they can't get jobs at all."
New Jersey's law was signed in December but didn't take effect for 180 days.
It was enacted with wide support in the Legislature, 69-5 with six abstentions
in the Assembly, and 31-5 and 33-3 in its two votes in the Senate.
Several other states give transgender people certain protections under sex or
disability discriminations laws, and four more states — Colorado, Iowa, Oregon
and Vermont — have transgender anti-discrimination laws coming into effect this
year.
"It's just the right thing to do," said Sen. Ellen Karcher, D-Monmouth, one of
the law's primary sponsors. "We're all human beings, and I just thought we
should give them the rights they deserved."
Barbara Casbar Siperstein, director of Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New
Jersey, said making the law "black and white" presents an opportunity to
"educate people and make them think."
"One of the things I think that we all want, as people, is respect," said Casbar
Siperstein.
Violators could face stiff penalties. The law allows for a pre-trial
investigation done by the state Division on Civil Rights or a civil court
hearing, and anything from a cease-and-desist order to compensation for the
harmed party could be issued. Fines could also be handed out, from $10,000
for a first offense to $50,000 for multiple offenses.
The current expansion adds to the oldest civil-rights statute in the country,
which was passed in 1945, said Frank Vespa-Papaleo, director at the state
Division on Civil Rights.
The original law prohibited discrimination based on race, nationality and
ethnicity in employment, but was sparsely enforced. The section in the
state Constitution outlawing discrimination in education and military service
was the first to explicitly state such a ban when it was drafted in 1947.
The new amendment to the law had its beginnings in a 2001 appellate court
decision known as Enriquez v. West Jersey Health Systems. The court
found the refusal to rehire a doctor who was in the process of going from male
to female violated the sexual discrimination law. The amendment codifies
existing rulings, said Vespa-Papaleo.
Vespa-Papaleo added that along with being the oldest, the state's civil rights
law is among the broadest in the country.
"New Jersey has a very bold and generally positive outlook on protecting the
rights of the people in our community regardless of their background," said
Vespa-Papaleo.
On the Web:
www.njcivilrights.org
mrispol@gannett.com
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