buzzfeed.com

NYC now requires employers, police and landlords to use trans people's correct names and pronouns

The new policy also prohibits restaurants from requiring men to wear ties in order to be served.

Nicolás Medina Mora

[gaywrites]

Using a person’s correct name and pronouns should be common sense. Unfortunately, for many people, it’s not. That’s why the New York Commission on Human Rights just implemented a new policy stating the rights of trans people to identify and express themselves however they like.

Here are a couple of points from the document:

• It’s illegal to deny someone the use of a single-sex facility (like a bathroom or shelter) because of their sex assigned at birth. 
  
• Another person’s discomfort with a trans person in a single-sex space is “not a lawful reason” to deny the trans person access. 
• Employers, police officers and landlords must refer to people using their correct name and pronouns – explicitly including gender-neutral pronouns!! – even if these don’t match a person’s legal ID. 
• You can no longer require different dress codes for different genders. For example, a restaurant cannot require only men to wear ties. 

Again, these things should be a given. But because they aren’t everywhere, we need policies like this to lead the way for other communities to become more actively trans-inclusive. It’s not enough to “tolerate” trans people; we need to ensure full affirmation and equality, and this is one step toward doing that.