Garden State Equality will hold a rally on Monday, March 13, calling on Governor Christie and his administration to step up and protect the state’s transgender youth. GSE will be joined by various legislators, as well as transgender youth advocates, educators and their families.

GSE executive director Christian Fuscarino said the protest rally starts at 1pm on the steps of the New Jersey Statehouse located at 125 W State St, in downtown Trenton. GSE is New Jersey’s largest advocacy and education organization for the LGBT community and LGBT advocates will be out in force say organizers.

Transgender youth continue to face obstacles that impinge upon their equality, said Fuscarino. “Across the country, the rights and liberties that are meant to protect them in our schools are being stripped away. In New Jersey, the Law Against Discrimination protects transgender youth, but guidance making the laws clearer must be issued,” he said.

Schools districts are wrongly under the impression that they can actively discriminate against transgender youth said GSE in a press release. Meanwhile, GSE has coauthored guidance for the New Jersey Department of Education in transgender issues but the guidelines have not been implemented.

“The department has failed to act, and there has been no indication that the Christie Administration intends to provide clarity,” said Fuscarino in an email. “It is something Garden State Equality and its supporters will simply no longer tolerate. This lack of inaction puts transgender youth at risk.”

At the rally on Monday, Fuscarino and many other LGBT and education advocates will call on Governor Christie and the DOE to immediately issue the guidance that Garden State Equality submitted more than a year ago.

www.gardenstateequality.org.