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P ositive P olicy
Trans community up for civil rights protection
ol lowing the lead of 27 other
U .S. cities, Portland soon
hopes to add new civil rights
protection to members of the
transgender community. The
proposal emerged from a partnership
among Mayor Vera Katz’s office, Com
missioner Dan Saltzman’s office, the
Metropolitan Human Rights Commis
sion and the Northwest Gender
Alliance, a trans advocacy organization.
Now, public input about the draft
ordinance is sought for a Dec. 13 hearing
on the issue. Comments must be submit
ted by Nov. 24.
Testimony will be taken by the M et
ropolitan Human Rights Commission or
the mayor’s office. The draft can be seen
on the mayor’s Web page.
“We are not leading the pack here,
but we are doing the right thing,” said
Sam Adams, the mayor’s chief of staff.
The original Civil Rights Ordinance
was passed in 1991. The policy provides
Sam
civil rights protection to individuals
based on race, religion, color, sex, marital status,
familial status, national origin, age, mental or
physical disability, sexual orientation or source
of income.
According to the mayor’s office, gender
identity was not included in the original docu
ment as a protected class for two reasons: The
issue was highly controversial, and the trans
community did not have a lot of advocacy at
the time.
Sin ce then, the Portland trans community
has organized and continued to lobby politi
cians for inclusion in the civil rights code.
Adams said the Northwest G ender A lliance
has been the leader in bringing the issue back
to the table.
Two years ago, the city passed a resolution to
protect city employees from discrimination
based on gender identity. A change to the city’s
Civil Rights Ordinance was considered, but
legal appeals of the city’s resolution that fol
lowed put that idea on hold.
A subsequent push for a countywide domes
tic partnership registry further slowed any
changes to the civil rights code, as did the Ore
gon Citizens A lliance’s anti-gay Measure 9. Offi
cials said the timing had to be right to proceed.
“They’ve shown such incredible patience,”
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Adams said about the trans community. “They
are the heroes in this.”
Boulder, Colo., and Seattle were used as
models for drafting details of the ordinance.
Seattle has had a human rights law on the
books explicitly including transgendered people
since 1986.
Gender identity is defined as “a person’s
actual or perceived sex, including a person’s
identity, appearance or behavior, whether or not
that identity, appearance or behavior is different
from that traditionally associated with the per
son’s sex at birth.”
In addition to general civil rights protec
tion, the proposal provides for the tracking of
hate crimes against transgendered people,
which is not currently part of hate crimes
record keeping. j n
To provide testimony contact Amalia Alarcon
C addie o f the Metropolitan Human Rights C om -
mission at agaddie@ci.Portland.or.us,
503-823-5542 or 1221 S.W . Fourth Avenue,
Room 110, Portland, OR 97204; the mayor’s
office at www.ci.portland.or.us/mayor/,
503-823-4122 or 1221 S.W . Fourth A ve., Suite
340, Portland, OR 97204; or attend the City
Council meeting 10:30 a.m . Dec. 13 at City Hall.
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