The moment of dread for transgender people comes when the question arises on a job application: "Have you ever lived or worked under another name?"

It bears a chilling echo of the witch hunts of the McCarthy era's anti-communism trials.

"My heart stops when I come to that question," conceded Drew Cordes, 31, of Albany, whose male-to-female gender reassignment surgery in 2011 in Montreal was profiled in the Times Union.

"It's time we let everyone know we have civil rights, too. There's no wrong time to do the right thing," said Cordes, a writer and editor who is a founder of the Transgender Advocates of the Capital Region.

Paola Gonzalez, 37, of Albany, a transgender female who transitioned in 2008, was not hired during a three-year job search. Each time, the gender question abruptly ended the interview when a manager discovered that Gonzalez was listed as Pedro on legal documents.

"The past haunts me," Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez was harassed by a tenant in the apartment where she lived and the landlord told Gonzalez to leave. Gonzalez, who has a master's degree in environmental engineering, was forced to sell engineering books and personal belongings to survive. She would have been homeless if friends did not take her in. Gonzales now works as a cashier at Home Depot.

Cordes has been verbally harassed by young men in Washington Park and knows transgender people who have been beaten up, are chronically unemployed, sporadically homeless and plagued by severe depression.

"We know they're hearing us in the Capitol and they're going to keep hearing us until GENDA passes," said Christopher Argyros, 33, of Albany, transgender rights organizer for the Empire State Pride Agenda. He has revved up lobbying before the end of the legislative session on June 20.

Cordes, Gonzalez and Argyros are on the front lines of a spirited drive to pass the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act, or GENDA, this year. The bill prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or expression for housing, employment, credit and public accommodations and expands New York's hate crimes law to include crimes against transgender individuals.

"This bill is more than a decade overdue, but we're very optimistic this year," said Nathan Schaefer, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, whose GENDA campaign has been endorsed by 600 religious leaders, 30 women's groups and unions representing more than 2 million workers statewide.

To date, 17 states have passed GENDA legislation, along with six cities across New York, including Albany. The Albany County Legislature is poised to pass the measure. A 2011 national poll by the Public Religion Research Institute found 89 percent support it.

The bill passed the Assembly for the sixth straight year on April 30, but has been blocked by the Senate's Republican majority, which has not allowed it to the floor for a vote. It costs the state up to $7 million a year as a result of employment and housing discrimination against the estimated 58,000 transgender New Yorkers, according to a study by the UCLA Law School's Williams Institute.

Sen. Jeffrey Klein supports GENDA, said a spokeswoman for the Bronx Democrat, who shares Senate leadership as head of the Independent Democratic Conference. Long Island Republican Dean Skelos, the Senate Majority Leader, has not stated a position publicly. The Senate bill has 23 cosponsors.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who championed New York's historic same-sex marriage bill in 2011, "is supportive," a spokesman said, but little more.

More Information Contact Paul Grondahl at 518-454-5623 or email pgrondahl@timesunion.com Contact Paul Grondahl at 518-454-5623 or email pgrondahl@timesunion.com See More Collapse

"We wish the governor would throw his weight behind it as he did with the same-sex bill," Cordes said. "He is leaving behind the T in LGBT."

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