New York Division of Human Rights Proposes New Legislation Offering Gender Identity Based Protection

Our colleague Amanda M. Gomez at Epstein Becker Green have recently published a post on the Hospitality Labor and Employment Law blog that will be of interest to our readers in the retail industry: “Proposed Regulation Prohibiting Gender Identity Discrimination Conforms Division of Human Rights’ Regulations to Executive Law.”

Following is an excerpt:

After a long legislative battle, the New York State Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (“GENDA” or “Law”), which was signed into law and became effective on January 25, 2019, explicitly added “gender identity or expression” as a protected class under the state’s non-discrimination laws. Now, under a proposed state regulation, the New York State Division of Human Rights (“DHR”) would amend its regulations, codified in NYCRR §466.13, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity, gender expression, and transgender status to conform with the Law.

The proposed regulation would amend NYCRR 466.13(b) to define “gender identity and expression” as “a person’s actual or perceived gender-related identity, appearance, behavior, expression or other gender-related characteristic regardless of the sex assigned to that person at birth, including but not limited to, the status of being transgender.” The change would match the definition in the Law.  Additionally, the phrase “gender identity or expression” would replace “gender identity” throughout the regulation. A new section, NYCRR 466.13(c), would also be added to clarify that “gender identity or expression” is now explicitly a separate protected class under the Human Rights Law. …

Read the full post here.