This afternoon, the five Republican members of the Senate Investigations and Government Operations Committee, along with Democratic committee member Ruben Diaz, Sr., voted against the Gender Expression Non Discrimination Act (GENDA). The final tally was 6-3.

Since the bill was written in December 2002, GENDA has passed the Assembly 10 times. However it has never passed out of Senate committee. Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC (SDNYC) is grateful to the leadership of Senator Daniel Squadron and the support of Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, Senator Brad Hoylman, and the entire Democratic Senate team on the continuing efforts to advance GENDA.

SDNYC is deeply disappointed that transgender New Yorkers were once again denied equal rights and we join, with transgender people in New York and around the nation, in looking wistfully at the GENDA bill and a near 20 year record of lost opportunities and bad faith bargaining. SDNYC recommits working to support public officials that believe, like the vast majority of New Yorkers, that everyone in our state deserves equal civil rights and we implore the Democrats in the New York State Senate to come together, reform as a Senate majority, and pass GENDA.