Long Beach City Council Vote to Approve Transgender Employee Anti-Discrimination Law

The Long Beach City council unanimously voted to amend the Employee Policy Manual to eliminate discrimination against an employee based on their gender identity, self-image, appearance or expression at a city council meeting on Tuesday night.

Since it was enacted in 2007, the current law has already eliminated discrimination on an employee based on sex, age, race, religion, sexual orientation and disability.

David Kilmnick, CEO of the local LGBT Network, one of the largest LGBT non-profit organization, spoke at the meeting.

"Discrimination can be an everyday experience for many transgender people and can affect nearly every area of life,” he said at the meeting.

According to Kilmnick, the National Transgender Discrimination survey showed that 26 percent of transgender people lost a job through bias, 50 percent were harassed on the job, 20 percent were evicted or denied housing and 78 percent of transgender students were harassed or assaulted.

He said that clear non-discrimination laws covering gender identity and expression are an important part of the solution because they can "stop discrimination before it happens."

However, he said that another important step the government should take is to create specific guidance or rules about what the laws mean like stating that transgender people have the right to use bathroom that match with what they identify with, which is not currently covered in the amendment.

"With this resolution and amendment to the current policy, Long Beach is doing exactly what is needed and is an example of the title policy that should be implement from Mineola to Albany and everywhere in between," Kilmnick said.

Earlier this month, the City of Long Beach was chosen to host the LGBT Network’s 27th annual Long Island Pride event next year.