"We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are."
- Anais Nin
Gender Identity Added to Civil Rights Ordinance (13 Dec 2000)
IT'S TIME, OREGON!
Press Release!
NEWS *** NEWS *** NEWS *** NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Lori Buckwalter,
Executive Director
(transgal@yahoo.com)
Wednesday, 13 Dec 2000
PORTLAND, OREGON CITY COUNCIL
REVISES CIVIL RIGHTS ORDINANCE
TO INCLUDE GENDER IDENTITY
Police Bureau to Collect Data on Hate Crimes
Based On Gender Identity As Well
PORTLAND -- Mayor Vera Katz and Commissioner Dan
Saltzman sponsored a resolution adding protection
against discrimination on the basis of gender
identity into the City’s civil rights ordinance.
The Portland City Council approved this addition
by unanimous vote in open Council session.
The City’s Civil Rights Ordinance had already
prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation and source of income, in addition to
standard state and federal protections against
discrimination for race, religion, color, sex,
marital status, familial status, national origin,
age, mental, or physical disability. Gender
identity has been added as a protected class.
Gender identity is defined as a person’s actual
or perceived sex, including a person’s identity,
appearance, expression or behavior, whether or
not that identity, appearance, expression or
behavior is different from that traditionally
associated with the person’s sex at birth.
Lori Buckwalter, Executive Director of It's Time,
Oregon! served as consultant to the City on the
drafting of gender identity protective language,
and in developing Compliance Guidelines for
Implementation of non-discrimination policies.
She has been directly involved in advocacy for
the revised Ordinance for the last four years,
and in creating trans-inclusive policies for law
enforcement agencies, as well. She notes that,
"The City of Portland has stepped to the
forefront of gender rights by adopting this
resolution. It recognizes the most inclusive
definition of gender civil rights available, and
confirms this language with an active commitment
to the safety and civil rights of its
transgendered and gender-variant citizens. I am
proud to call this City my home, and proud that
its leaders have acted with courage, compassion
and vision in affirming the dignity of all its
people."
The Ordinance revision was also actively
supported in Council deliberations by a wide
range of community organizations, including:
Basic Rights Oregon, the Human Rights Campaign,
Metropolitan Community Church, the Oregon Gay and
Lesbian Law Association, PFLAG, Coalition Against
Hate Crimes, and many others.
The revision of the Portland civil rights code
was a major step in a progressive implementation
of policies that protect transgendered and gender
variant people in Portland. In 1998, the Council
directed a series of actions to establish that
the City itself could demonstrate equal
opportunity and anti-discrimination practices to
protect on the basis of gender identity.
In 1999 gender identity was added as a protected
class within the City Affirmative Action/EEO Plan
and City Human Resource training was implemented
for all bureaus. City compliance guidelines were
developed to foster a successful and supportive
program for respecting the rights of
transgendered and transsexual employees.
Also in 1999, the City’s Pilot Civil Rights
Mediation Program was expanded to include
mediation on the basis of gender identity, an
expansion which provided a number of meaningful
opportunities to resolve discrimination cases
brought by transgendered and transsexual persons.
The City’s Contractor EEO certification program
will incorporate protections on the basis of
gender identity for the 2000-01 renewal cycle.
Policies providing for the appropriate
classification and housing of transgendered
inmates in Multnomah County and Portland were
adopted in 2000.
The Portland Police Bureau has initiated a
comprehensive precinct-level training program
focusing on official interactions with
transgender and transsexual citizens.
The proposed ordinance provides guidance on how
the new ordinance would work in the context of
employment and in the use of facilities such as
bathrooms and locker rooms, because these
situations typically create the biggest initial
questions where gender identity becomes protected
under a City law.
For instance, the ordinance sets appropriate
standards which respect privacy interests for all
in the use of gender-specific facilities such as
locker rooms. The ordinance also requires
reasonable accommodations to be made for people
in the use of bathrooms and locker rooms in the
process of gender transition. The implementing
ordinance will also direct the Portland Police
Bureau to develop procedures which will allow the
bureau to collect hate crimes information
relating to disability, age, and gender identity.
Oregon State criminal intimidation statutes do
not cover these groups, yet anecdotal information
locally and some national studies show such hate
crimes activities do occur.
"I want our Police Bureau to go beyond state law
requirements and track crimes committed against
all of those who are vulnerable to hate crimes in
our city," said Mayor Katz. "If we show a pattern
of criminal activity against those groups, that
data will be ammunition for them to gain
protections at a state level as they deserve."
