Corinne S Kennedy, and Gustavo Solis

The Desert Sun

Palm Springs and Cathedral City city councils unanimously voted Wednesday to add gender identity to their city nondiscrimination ordinances.

Palm Springs amends the municipal code to require businesses and nonprofits seeking city contracts to have an equal benefits policy for all of their employees, including transgender workers. The city will also have the power to investigate complaints of businesses accused of discrimination.

The state of California has adopted a similar nondiscrimination ordinance but nothing like this has passed at the municipal level, Councilman Geoff Kors said.

Palm Springs’ nondiscrimination ordinance will not force businesses to provide additional benefits to employees. It ensures benefits offered to one employee are offered to all employees regardless of gender identity or expression, the ordinance states.

Organizations based outside of California may not be legally required to offer equal benefits to transgender employees; this ordinance will help ensure nondiscrimination standards are met.

“All of this is required under California law for anyone who purchases a health plan,” Kors said. “You can’t get a health plan that discriminates in California; unfortunately in a lot of other states, you can.”

The ordinance passed by Cathedral City makes it illegal for city hotels and businesses to discriminate based on gender identity or gender expression.

Cathedral City City Manager Charlie McClendon said that while there were state nondiscrimination laws, there were no federal protections preventing discrimination based on gender identity.

California state law has steadily increased protections for those who are transgender or gender non-conforming since 2004, including launching the Gender Nondiscrimination Act, which took effect in 2012.

These protections include work, housing, public restrooms, work uniforms and medical care.

The Transgender Law Center gives California one of the highest scores in the country for policy friendliness toward the LGBT community. It gives the state a 14.25 out of a possible 16 points for gender identity policy. The only demerits come for not having credit and lending nondiscrimination laws, a state law which penalizes the transmission of HIV and only having local – not statewide – laws allowing transgender individuals to easily change their gender on their driver’s license.

This article is part of the Insider column, a weekly roundup of political and public policy news, endorsements and events. The full column runs every Sunday in The Desert Sun. Reach the authors at Corinne.Kennedy@DesertSun.com, (760) 778-4625 and on Twitter @CorinneSKennedy and at Gustavo.Solis@DesertSun.com, (760) 778-4443 and on Twitter @JournoGoose