Transgender bill shot down in NY State Senate amid partisan rancor
Squadron: ‘Not one Republican Senator voted to support basic fairness for all.’
A bill that would give transgender persons equal protections under the law was shot down — again — in a New York State Senate committee on Tuesday after a partisan clash over what the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Daniel Squadron, called President Donald Trump’s “campaign of divisiveness and fear.”
Following the vote, Squadron (D – Brooklyn waterfront and lower Manhattan) blasted Republicans who blocked the bill, saying in a statement, “Today, the Senate stood with Trumpian divisiveness, discrimination, and fear. As the Trump Administration rolls back basic protections for transgender Americans, the Senate Majority has an obligation to ensure all New Yorkers are protected. Today, not one Republican Senator voted to support basic fairness for all.”
During the discussion preceding the vote of the Investigations and Government Operations committee, Squadron told his fellow senators that Senate Bill S502, called GENDA, was very simple: “It ensures the basic fairness, the basic civil rights that the vast majority of New Yorkers take for granted for transgender New Yorkers.”