Gender Identity Or Expression' Law Welcomed

The General Assembly's action to include "gender identity or expression" in the state statutes barring discrimination is welcome, says Andrew Schneider, executive director of the ACLU-CT.

"This bill was high on our legislative agenda," Schneider says. The General Assembly will not this year abolish the death penalty, which was on our agenda, nor insist on tracking police use of racial profiling but we welcome this new law as well as action reducing the penalty for casual use of marijuana (see separate stories).

The gender identity bill or expression bill, adopted by both the state House and Senate in the waning days of the 2011 regular session, simply adds to the existing anti-discrimination language that, in effect, includes those commonly called "transgendered".

The precise language: "Gender identity or expression" means a person's gender-related identity, appearance or behavior, whether or not that gender-related identity, appearance or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with the person's physiology or assigned sex at birth, which gender-related identity can be shown by providing evidence including, but not limited to, medical history, care or treatment of the gender-related identity, consistent and uniform assertion of the gender-related identity or any other evidence that the gender-related identity is sincerely held, part of a person's core identity or not being asserted for an improper purpose."

Gov. Dannel Malloy is expected to sign the new law when it reaches his desk; it will take effect, as does most new legislation, on October 1.