NEWS RELEASE
Monday, Feb. 17, 2004                       

EQUALITY MARYLAND
Contact: Dan Furmansky, Executive Director
Phone:    Office 410-685-6567
Cell    301-461-4900
Email:    dan@equalitymaryland.org

EQUALITY MARYLAND DISMAYED BY ATTORNEY GENERAL’S STANCE ON TRANSGENDER-INCLUSIVE NON-DISCRIMINATION POLICY

Attorney General's Office Rejects University of Maryland's Proposed Human Rights Code

BALTIMORE –– Equality Maryland, Maryland's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights group, criticized the Maryland Attorney General's decision to reject the University of Maryland's proposed change to its human rights code that would have protected transgender students, faculty and staff from discrimination. The University Senate's Human Relations Committee proposed adding "gender identity and gender expression" to its university-wide human rights code last March, and since the University receives state funds, changes to the code must be approved by the Attorney General's office.

In a response last week, the Attorney General's department determined there is no legal precedent to justify the change and sent an amended version of the University's Human Rights code back to the school. In 1992, however, the State approved an amendment to the University of Maryland human rights code that added sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy, a full nine years before Maryland added this category to it's own anti-discrimination law.

"The desire not to discriminate should require no justification," said executive director Dan Furmansky. "Professionals at the University of Maryland have made an important statement about how the University expects its transgender students, faculty and staff should be treated. It is simply following the lead of Baltimore City, which passed a law in 2002 that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or expression in the areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations. Three of the 13 institutions in the University system are located in Baltimore city."

Sixty-Eight jurisdictions nationwide explicitly protect people from discrimination based on gender identity/expression, including four states. Five additional states and the District of Columbia protect transgender individuals against discrimination judicially or administratively.

"The bottom line is that the University needs to provide a welcoming and affirming environment for transgender people, a growing demographic on campus, and we must protect individual gender identity and expression in order to do so," said Luke Jensen, director of the University of Maryland's Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equity. "We want transgender individuals to come forward and identify themselves so that we can provide for the legitimate privacy concerns of everyone, but we can't expect them to do so if we don't have these basic protections in our Human Relations Code."

Several colleges and universities across the country prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and expression, including Brown, Knox College,
Middlebury, State University of New York, University of Iowa, University of Puget Sound, and Wesleyan University.

"In Maryland, save for Baltimore City, it is perfectly legal to fire someone just because he or she is transgender, and that person has no legal recourse," said Furmansky. "If the stated problem here is a lack of statewide precedence for the proposed policy, then it is clearly time to amend Maryland's current laws to ban discrimination based on an individual's gender identity or expression. Let's attack this problem head on, not slice apart the inclusive policies and statements of the University System."

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Equality Maryland is Maryland's largest LGBT civil rights organization, focused on making life better for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens of Maryland.   Equality Maryland works to secure and protect the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Marylanders by promoting legislative initiatives on the state, county and municipal levels and educating the public about the issues faced by our diverse community.

Equality Maryland can be found online at www.equalitymaryland.org