Trans validation: transgender activists are claiming mixed results in battles for equality in New York and Maine."Restrooms are among the most contested sites for transgender people The people on this list have been selected because their fame or notoriety is in some way due or connected to their transgender identity or behaviour. Each person in this list has hir own Wikipedia article, where each subject can be studied in much greater detail. ," says activist Pauline Park Pauline Park (born 1960) is a transgender activist based in New York City. Early life and education Born in Korea, Park was adopted by European American parents and raised in the United States. As a child, she attended public schools in Milwaukee. Park received a B.A. , cochair of the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Association for Gender Rights Advocacy. "This settlement is an important legal victory, and I also hope it will help empower transgender people in relation to public accommodations." Park is referring to the antidiscrimination settlement she won in March against a New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. security company that harassed her for using a women's bathroom in a mall. A 2002 city law, which Park helped to get enacted, prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression. The joint settlement also included Justine Nicholas, another transgender transgender or transgendered adj. Transsexual. woman harassed by another guard from the same company, Advantage Security, for the same reason. "When I tiled the complaint," she explains, "I thought about the next transgender person who might come along and face the same problem." Under the terms of the settlement the company will make a written apology to the women, pledge to not discriminate again, provide sensitivity training for its employees, and pay Park and Nicholas $2,500 each (which they are then to donate to the nonprofit of their choice). Even as the women celebrated their victory, the Hispanic AIDS Forum of New York City had a setback in a similar area A New York State appeals court dismissed the forum's lawsuit accusing a former landlord of refusing to renew its office lease because its transgender clients were using the building's common-area bathrooms. American Civil Liberties Union American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), nonpartisan organization devoted to the preservation and extension of the basic rights set forth in the U.S. Constitution. lawyers representing the forum had argued for protection under laws against discrimination based on disability and gender in 2000, before the passage of the New York City law banning gender identity--based discrimination. A forum lawyer pledged to continue litigating the case. Meanwhile, Maine took a major step forward in protecting transgender people, as Gov. John Baldacci signed a law prohibiting discrimination in employment, housing, credit, public accommodations, and education on the basis of sexual orientation sexual orientation n. The direction of one's sexual interest toward members of the same, opposite, or both sexes, especially a direction seen to be dictated by physiologic rather than sociologic forces. and gender identity. Maine joins five other states and the District of Columbia District of Columbia, federal district (2000 pop. 572,059, a 5.7% decrease in population since the 1990 census), 69 sq mi (179 sq km), on the east bank of the Potomac River, coextensive with the city of Washington, D.C. (the capital of the United States). in banning gender identity--based discrimination. "The Maine law is a terrific victory," says Michael Silveman, an advocate in the case against Advantage Security and executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, "and it goes to prove a point. We won our settlement in New York City because there is now a law that specifically prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression. The Hispanic AIDS Forum suit was dismissed partly because it was tiled before that law existed. These cases point to the same conclusion: Local and state laws are incredibly important." |
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