ALBANY — A newly formed grassroots group, Transgender Advocates of the Capital Region, will push for civil rights and social equality for transgender people.

"We decided we should fight for the civil rights we still lack in New York state and try to empower the community as a whole," said Drew Cordes of Albany, a director of the organization along with Sarah Coughtry and Marwin Margolies. Several dozen people have supported the group on a Facebook page. Cordes is a transgender female who was the subject of a 2011 Times Union profile after undergoing gender reassignment surgery in Montreal that year.

The all-volunteer group, which announced its formation Wednesday, will initially focus its energies on lobbying the Legislature for passage of the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, or GENDA. It would extend to transgender people the same legal protections and civil rights that other New Yorkers enjoy. It has passed the Assembly in past sessions but has died in committee in the Senate.

So far, 16 states, including Massachusetts and Connecticut, have passed laws to extend discrimination protection for transgender people by amending existing "hate crimes" statutes to include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, or LGBT, in a definition of groups given legal protection from discrimination.

"Currently under our state law, it's completely legal to fire transgender people from their jobs, kick them out of their homes, or deny them medical care simply because of their gender identity," Coughtry said. "That needs to change, and we are devoted to making that change a reality."

There are an estimated 700,000 transgender people in the U.S. and a few hundred in the Capital Region, according to surveys. A high percentage of transgender people report being harassed and discriminated against in the workplace.

Cordes said the group will augment the work of established transgender advocacy groups based in Albany, including the Empire State Pride Agenda and In Our Own Voices.

"We will work together with them and not duplicate efforts, but we think there is more room for trans advocacy," Cordes said. "This might be the best chance we have to pass GENDA this year. We will do all we can to make that happen."

pgrondahl@timesunion.com • 518-454-5623 • @PaulGrondahl