Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Not All News from Carson Is Bad...

Amidst all the angst over the seemingly never ending budget brawl, there is some good news today.

Despite opposition from Republican legislators, Gov. Brian Sandoval will sign a bill today prohibiting discrimination against transgender workers.

Dale Erquiaga, senior adviser to the governor, said Sandoval will also sign two other bills approved by the Legislature to ban gender discrimination.

Assembly Bill 211, to be signed today, passed the Assembly 29-13 and the Senate 11-10, with all of the [Assembly] opposition coming from GOP lawmakers.

The bill prohibits discrimination in employment based on gender identity or expression. Gender identity or expression, according to the bill, means gender-related identity appearance, expression or behavior of a person, regardless of the person’s assigned gender at birth.

The Assembly on Monday approved the two other anti-discrimination bills on transsexuals in public accommodations and housing. The vote was 29-13 and the bills are on their way to the governor. All 13 "no" votes were cast by Republicans.

This really goes a great distance to finally address and correct the huge inequity in Nevada's workplace. Enough families are already suffering because of the recession. We don't need any more people fired just because of who they are. That's just plain wrong, and it's long past time for Nevada to say enough is enough to unfair workplace discrimination.

So AB 211 is finally becoming law. Occasionally, The Legislature may actually still be useful. (More on that soon...)

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