We are currently working to advance the Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act in the 2011 Maryland legislative session. This bill would prohibit discrimination in the areas of employment, housing, and credit. Anti-discrimination protections would exist only as defined in the current law.

No one deserves to be fired, refused work, denied housing, education or credit, or suffer harassment or violence just because of who they are -- but transgender people and those who don't fit gender stereotypes, such as some gay, lesbian, bisexual, and straight people, in Maryland routinely face this type of discrimination and/or violence without some kind of recourse. In order to close the loophole on discrimination in areas of basic rights such as housing or employment, EQMD, along with a number of LGBT and allied organizations, have filed legislation to protect people on the basis of gender identity and expression.

Nationwide, 13 states, Washington D.C., and 132 counties and cities have passed legislation to ban this discrimination in their communities -- including Baltimore City and Montgomery County.

From the 2009 National Transgender Discrimination Survey - Key Findings by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force:

• Double the rate of unemployment: Survey respondents experience unemployment at twice the rate of the population as a whole.

• Near universal harassment on the job: Ninety-seven percent (97%) of those surveyed reported experiencing harassment or mistreatment on the job.

• Significant losses of jobs and careers: Forty-seven percent (47%) had experienced an adverse job outcome, such as being fired, not hired or denied a promotion.

• High rates of poverty: Fifteen percent (15%) of transgender people in our sample lived on $10,000 per year or less - double the rate of the general population.

• Significant housing instability: Nineteen percent (19%) of our sample have been or are homeless, 11% have faced eviction and 26% were forced to seek temporary space.

The bill will be re-introduced for the 2011 legislative session in the House and Senate.

This bill will make explicit the State's commitment to providing people of diverse gender identities and expressions equal protection under the law, and guarantee transgender and gender non-conforming people the opportunity to contribute to their communities and to the local economy. It sends a clear message that everyone should be able to work, go to school, and live without fear in Maryland.

This law is about fairness.
Learn more:

About the legislation

Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act

Lead Sponsors: Del. Joseline Pena-Melnyk

• Bill Summary: This legislation would prohibit discrimination in the areas of employment, housing, and credit. Anti-discrimination protections would exist only as defined in the current law.

• Status: The bill will be introduced in the 2011 legislative session.

How You Can Help Now

It's as easy as picking up the phone. We show you how, step by step. Click here to take action on Gender Identity Discrimination.

History of Transgender Equal Rights Legislation

STATE LAW

In Maryland transgender people are not currently protected under statewide anti-discrimination laws that include coverage for discrimination based on sexual orientation. Baltimore City and Montgomery County provide such protections for the transgender community. Transgender people experience bias in a number of venues related to employment, housing, healthcare, public accommodations and others.
In employment, discrimination against transgender individuals can occur during the application process, employment, promotion and/or termination. An employee may experience gender identity-based discrimination in many instances such as when coming out, transitioning to a different biological sex, discovery of their birth sex, or even mere suspicion of transgender status.

Transgender people also frequently suffer discrimination when health care professionals deny treatment because of gender identity or expression, ridicule a patient, or refuse to recognize the gender identity of a patient. In other areas of public accommodations, transgender people might be refused service at a restaurant or in a specific gender department at a store, or simply ignored by staff. Transgender individuals also may be denied access to social service like shelters or rape crisis centers. Equality Maryland expects workplace decisions to be based on an individual's qualifications and job skills. We ask other jurisdictions to follow the progressive lead of Baltimore City and Montgomery County in outlawing discrimination based on gender identity and expression.

BALTIMORE CITY

On December 6 2002, Mayor Martin O'Malley signed into law Council Bill 02-0857 (PDF, 720 kb), which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or expression in the areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations. The ordinance provides similar protections to transgender people in Baltimore City as those provided to lesbian, gay and bisexual Marylanders under the statewide Anti-Discrimination Act of 2001.

Click here to learn more about this law. If you are considering filing a complaint, click here for more information.

Montgomery County

September 2009

The highest court in Maryland decided that an anti-transgender measure must be removed from the ballot in Montgomery County, MD. The court agreed with plaintiffs that the opposition effort did not collect enough valid signatures, reversing a lower court decision. The measure will not move forward as a result of this decision. The Montgomery County Council in Maryland unanimously passed that law last fall, but opponents quickly launched a signature-gathering effort to place a repeal measure on the ballot.

In March, the county Board of Elections certified those petitions, but a group of Montgomery County voters brought a lawsuit against the Board of Elections challenging its conclusion that enough valid signatures had indeed been collected.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund, Equality Maryland and dozens of volunteers mounted an extensive review of the signatures collected by proponents of the anti-transgender ballot measure. For more than two months — days, nights and weekends — volunteers converged on Task Force headquarters in Washington, D.C., to pore over the 25,000-plus submitted signatures and find flaws that would possibly invalidate the signatures.

ALSO:

In 2007, Governor Martin O'Malley signed an Executive Order banning discrimination based on gender identity and expression in employment for state employees."

SECONDARY PAGE ::

About "The Bill"
House Bill #(coming soon) -- Senate Bill #(coming soon)

Background

A person whose gender identity or expression does not conform to stereotypes about gender is likely to face high levels of discrimination and violence. Transgender people are particularly at risk. People who are transgender face widespread prejudice and are currently unprotected with no explicit protections in the Massachusetts General Laws.

What this Bill Does

This bill will add Maryland to 13 other states, Washington D.C., and 132 counties and cities, including Baltimore City and Montgomery County that protect transgender people. This bill will make the protection of transgender people explicit, uniform, and visible to the general public. It will include gender identity and expression in the state's non-discrimination statute.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What does gender identity and expression mean?
"Gender identity or expression" is defined as "a gender-related identity, appearance, expression, or behavior of an individual, regardless of the individual's assigned sex at birth." 
The term transgender refers to people who live as a gender opposite which they were assigned at birth.
Wouldn't this create complex new laws?
Not at all. It adds "gender identity or expression" to the list of classes protected by our state's non-discrimination laws. This list varies across different parts of the law, but generally includes race, religion, creed, color, national origin, and sexual orientation.

Isn't this already covered under existing laws?

Transgender people derive some protections from existing statutes dealing with sex and disability derived from various court rulings but they are not explicitly protected by our laws. The inclusion of gender identity and expression in our non-discrimination laws achieves three important goals:

• It makes a clear statement of statewide policy.

• It makes clear the scope of coverage to anyone who reads the laws or encounters materials related to them.

• It affirms the State's commitment to fair treatment and freedom from discrimination, crime, and violence for all its citizens. 

• All hardworking residents of this state, including transgender residents, should be free from discrimination in housing and employment.

Is Maryland the first place to explicitly protect people from discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression? 

No. Nationwide, 13 states, Washington D.C., and 134 counties and cities have passed non-discrimination laws on this basis, including Baltimore City and Cambridge and the towns of Northampton and Amherst. Many employers based or operating in Maryland have already adopted non-discrimination policies that include gender identity. These employers include:

• Choice Hotels International Inc.
• Constellation Energy Group Inc.
• DLA Piper
Goucher College
• Johns Hopkins Hospital
• Johns Hopkins University
• Lockheed Martin Corp.
• Marriott International Inc.
• Sodexo Inc.
• University of Baltimore

Nationwide, at least 785 companies have adopted gender identity and expression non-discrimination policies that therefore include transgender people.

Two years ago, the official name of the bill was "Non-Discrimination-Gender Identity" so that may be the name you want to use to refer to it. Or, you might want to call it the "Gender Identity Non-Discrimination Bill" or "Transgender Non-Discrimination Bill" --- just so people know what we are talking about (but if you do call it that, make sure to say "officially referred to as "Non-Discrimination-Gender Identity"")

In 2005, Equality Maryland succeeded in securing approval for a proposal to expand Maryland's hate crimes statute to include crimes committed because of a victim's sexual orientation or gender identity. The bill, sponsored by Delegate Adrienne Jones and Senator John Giannetti, was passed by large majorities in both houses of the Maryland General Assembly and signed by Gov. Robert Ehrlich on May 26, 2005. The new law provides vital protections for LGBT citizens and represents a fundamental component of equality under the law for all Marylanders.

HATE CRIMES

In 2005, Equality Maryland succeeded in securing approval for a proposal to expand Maryland's hate crimes statute to include crimes committed because of a victim's sexual orientation or gender identity. The bill, sponsored by Delegate Adrienne Jones and Senator John Giannetti, was passed by large majorities in both houses of the Maryland General Assembly and signed by Gov. Robert Ehrlich on May 26, 2005. The new law provides vital protections for LGBT citizens and represents a fundamental component of equality under the law for all Marylanders.
On this page, we provide useful background information about hate crimes and how they affect the LGBT community.
What is a Hate Crime?
When teenagers spraypaint random graffiti on the façade of a bridge, this is vandalism. When teenagers spraypaint a Nazi swastika with the words "die Jews" on a synagogue, this is an altogether different crime. This is a hate crime.
Hate crimes differ from other crimes in that they target a whole community as opposed to just an individual victim. Hate crimes are intended to cause fear among an entire group of people. A hate crime sends a message that an individual and "their kind" will not be tolerated, many times leaving the victim and others in their group feeling isolated, vulnerable and unprotected.
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
Public Law No. 111-84
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA) was signed into law by President Barack Obama on October 28, 2009. 
What does the HCPA do?
The HCPA gives the Department of Justice (DOJ) the power to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated violence by providing the DOJ with jurisdiction over crimes of violence where a perpetrator has selected a victim because of the person's actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.
In addition, it provides the DOJ with the ability to aid state and local jurisdictions with investigations and prosecutions of bias-motivated crimes of violence.  The HCPA authorizes the DOJ to provide grants to state and local enforcement to cover the extraordinary expenses associated with the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes.  It also authorizes the provision of grants for local programs to combat hate crimes committed by juveniles, including programs that train local law enforcement officers in identifying, investigating, prosecuting and preventing hate crimes. 
Furthermore, the HCPA requires the Federal Bureau of Investigation to track statistics on hate crimes based on gender and gender identity (statistics for the other groups were already tracked).


To report a violation of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act contact your local FBI Office http://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field

The Issues: 
Transgender Issues

UPDATE: State Department issues new passport standards for gender transition

The State Department  policy change allows transgender people to adjust their passports to reflect their new gender upon certification from their medical doctor that they have received appropriate clinical treatment. Before this, sex reassignment surgery was a prerequisite to making a change of gender on a passport, a requirement that was out-of-date based on current medical and social understandings of gender identity. The new standard recognizes that treatment related to gender identity should be based on what an individual needs. This update also brings passport policies up to par with many other transgender-friendly state policies that apply to driver's licenses and other forms of identification. The change in policy also applies to birth certificates issued by the State Department for U.S. citizens born abroad, known as Consular Reports of Birth Abroad.

UPDATE: MVA Cancels Dangerous Policy Change
Equality Maryland has received an email from the Attorney General’s office with the following statement from the MVA:
"MVA believes that the current policy on gender designation which has been in practice for almost a decade is secure and the procedures we have adopted ensures reasonable accommodation for individuals who are making a gender transition change. At this time, MVA is not effecting a change to that policy. However, written legal advice received from the Office of Attorney General clearly states that MVA's current policy does not meet all statutory requirements and we are therefore continuing to work with the Office of Attorney General before making a final determination on whether a policy update is appropriate."
As you can see, the MVA intends to stick with current procedures; however, they continue to assert that the policy does not meet all statutory requirements. In the New Year, Equality Maryland and our partners will work to convene relevant stakeholders to either secure a change in the statutory requirements or assess policy revisions. We will need to work with the MVA Secretary John Kuo and perhaps the Maryland Department of Transportation Secretary as well, as they set policy for their departments.

We are pleased that the MVA was willing to halt the implementation of this dangerous policy change in order to allow for constructive dialogue. There is still work to do, but for now let’s take a moment to celebrate.
Background: The Maryland Vehicle Administration (MVA) was considering an update to their policy regarding changing the gender marker on a driver's license. It was scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2010.
Current Policy: To change the gender marker, an applicant must provide a physician or psychologist’s report to confirm that the applicant is in active treatment. The MVA requires annual re-evaluations until the applicant "meets requirements for permanent gender change." If you are using a name other than your birth name, you must bring the document that initiated the change of name, such as a marriage certificate, divorce decree or court name change order and your current License.
Proposed Policy: The new policy would require an amended birth certificate. This requires going through the court system. Maryland code states that they will issue a birth certificate reflecting the proper gender only upon receipt of a certified copy of an order of from a court indicating that the sex of an individual born has been changed by surgical procedure and whether such individual's name has been changed. You cannot change the sex on a birth certificate simply by providing proof that you are undergoing medical treatment or procedures for gender reassignment.
The proposal would have created additional hoops and legal fees for transgender Marylanders who are looking to update their driver's license. Having a legal identity document that does not match a person’s gender exposes them to potential risk not just of embarrassment, but of harassment as well.

Transgender 101

    •    Read an informative essay from Dr. Dana Beyer, an Equality Maryland board member, explains the basics of what it means to be "transgender."
    •    View a fact sheet on the importance of expanding protections for transgender Marylanders.
    •    MOVE TO RESOURCE PAGE
Discrimination (link to GI Bill page)
Current law does not include Gender Identity and Expression.
Hate Crimes  (link to HC issue page)
Hate Crimes against all LGBT people is illegal in Maryland.

Personal Stories

Read stories and testimony submitted to us by members of the Maryland transgender community.  To submit your own story, please email owen@equalitymaryland.org.

The Maryland Transgender Anti-Discrimination Coalition was formed in 2009 in support of EQMD's fight to include gender identity and expression in state-wide anti-discrimination laws. Individuals and organizations are encouraged to sign up as coalition sponsors. Click here for more information!

Transgender Resources

A collection of links, newspaper articles, and other resources by, for, and about the transgender community.  Click here for the Equality Maryland Transgender Resource Guide.