New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, announced the creation of new state regulations to protect transgender people from discrimination, in a move that is likely to reverberate across the US where trans rights continue to move swiftly up the political agenda.



“It is my opinion that in 2015, it is clear that the fair, legal interpretation and definition of a person’s sex includes gender identity and gender expression,” Cuomo said at a Manhattan benefit on Thursday night, organized by Empire State Pride Agenda, a campaign group based in the city that advocates for LGBT equality.



Cuomo said he will enact his executive order within one week, after which the new rules are expected to go swiftly into effect across the state. The regulations will offer protection against bias in the workplace, housing and a wide sweep of public services and facilities, from stores to rental businesses and hospitals, covering both the public and private sectors.

Nathan Schaefer, executive director of Empire State Pride Agenda, called Thursday “a historic day”.

“We are thrilled. This sends a message to the country that you can extend protections by any means necessary and there are many ways to get a solution in the fight for equal protection under the law,” Schaefer said.

“It’s a huge step forward in ensuring that transgender people have the protections they really need, and it’s what we’ve been looking for for many years,” he added.

Cuomo is the first governor to pass trans protection rights through executive order. Eighteen other states have protections in place via legislation, but New York has had such legislation stalled in a divided state assembly for almost a decade.



“I hope that other governors and other leaders follow Cuomo’s example,” Schaefer said.

New York state passed legislation in 2002 to protect people from bias in housing, employment and other areas based on sexual orientation, but deliberately excluded transgender rights under that law. More recent legislation to close that gap has long been blocked by the Republican-led state senate in Albany.

On Thursday night, Cuomo called the 2002 legislation “flawed”.

“The law protected lesbians, gays and bisexuals, but it left out the ‘T’, so to speak. It left behind the transgendered,” Cuomo said.

“That was not right, it was not fair and it was not legal,” he continued, to cheers and a standing ovation at the dinner.

Cuomo had already become a popular figure in the equal rights arena after he pushed the legalization of same-sex marriage through the divided legislature, where it had been stuck for more than four years, helping to pave the way for a cascade of states that followed.

President Obama voiced support for same-sex marriage in 2012, following a long period of equivocation on the subject, the year after New York state passed same-sex marriage laws under Cuomo’s governorship in 2011 and prior to the supreme court making it legal nationwide in 2015. This summer, the federal government announced a working group to pave the way for trans people to serve openly in the military.

But legislation to protect transgender individuals in New York state has been in limbo in Albany for eight years, while widespread discrimination across the country persists.

Cuomo now intends to order the state division of human rights to write new rules extending 1945’s New York State Human Rights Law – which shields against discrimination on the basis of gender – to include trans protection. After the new regulations are issued next week, there is a 45-day consultation period before it goes into effect.

The new regulations are intended to be comprehensive, covering all workers in New York state, not just public sector employees, and also offering protection against bias in housing and so-called public accommodations – a sweeping legal term covering many services used by the general public, such as retail stores, hospitals, education and recreation facilities, rental establishments and other entities.

“The scourge of harassment and discrimination against transgender individuals is well-known – and has also gone largely unanswered for too long,” Cuomo said.

The national lobbying group Human Rights Campaign called Cuomo’s move “a critically important step”, saying it would not only protect residents of New York state but also visitors, as well as sending a wider message.

“His leadership and vision on LGBT equality has and will continue to inspire the nation,” said the HRC president, Chad Griffin.

Sasha Buchert, an attorney at the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco, said state laws such as the new regulations announced by Cuomo were more comprehensive than the federal Title VII statute against sex discrimination, which can apply to gender identity but has limited reach.

HRC pointed out, however, that 29 states have no laws protecting people against discrimination in their everyday lives either on the basis of their sexual orientation or their gender identity. It also notes that more than 100 anti-LGBT bills have been filed in 29 state legislatures.

New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, a conservative evangelical Christian campaign group, accused Cuomo of overstepping his powers and followed his announcement on Thursday with a statement promising “a full court press” against the executive order, including a legal challenge “if necessary”.

The group has lobbied strongly against the gender identity protection bill that has long been blocked in the state legislature, dubbing it the Bathroom Bill and warning that it would allow “intact biological males who assert female gender identities access to women’s locker rooms, changing areas, and restrooms in places of public accommodation, thus compromising the privacy and safety of women and girls”.