Houston Mayor Annise Parker pushes for a city ordinance to protect transgender people in public accommodations

Houston is the last large city in Texas without an ordnance protecting it's LGBT citizens from discrimination. Mayor Parker announced in her state of the city address, she intended to change that. Mayor Parker, an out lesbian signed an executive order in 2010 which extended protections to transgender city employees in city-owned buildings but the fact that there no city ordnance's protecting transgender and gay people in public buildings did not escape the community's attention.

Mayor Parker intent on getting the ordinance passed during her final two years said "A young African-American man should not be turned away from a club on Washington Avenue. A returning veteran with a service dog should not be denied service at a local restaurant. An older woman should not be denied a job on a city contract. And yet these things do happen in the friendliest, most welcoming, most diverse city in the United States. And yes, a gay or transgendered individual should have the same rights enjoyed by all other Houstonians."

According to Houston Public Media the  Houston Area Pastor Council has already begun campaigning against the proposed non discrimination ordinance presumably because it would be transgender inclusive.

Houston GLBT Political Caucus Issues Statement in Support of Proposed Houston Human Rights Ordinance

Contact: Maverick Welsh
713-306-5825
maverick@maverickwelsh.com

At its regular monthly meeting on April 2, the Houston GLBT Political Caucus membership approved a statement in support of a proposed Human Rights Ordinance for the city of Houston. The statement reads:

“The Houston GLBT Political Caucus supports the City of Houston in passing a citywide Human Rights Ordinance that will protect and safeguard the right and opportunity of all persons to be free from all forms of discrimination, including discrimination based on real or perceived race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, sex, gender identity, gender expression, religion, sexual orientation, disability, marital or family status and veteran status. We support an HRO that ensures every Houstonian has equal access to employment, housing and public accommodation.”

“Houston is a world class city,” said Caucus president Maverick Welsh. “It’s past time that we updated our city ordinances to reflect our position as the economic and cultural capital of Texas. Every Houstonian deserves the right to work and provide for their family without fear of losing their job or home because of who they are or who they love.”

The Houston GLBT Political Caucus is the South's oldest civil rights organization dedicated solely to the advancement of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality. Founded in 1975, it is the largest GLBT political organization in the city of Houston and Harris County.

Governor Rick Perry says Texas won't comply with the Federal Rape Prevention Act

Transgender people are at particular risk of violence and rape while incarcerated. A problem which the 2003 bill was designed to help prevent, but Perry says the regulations which are mandated for implementation by May 15th, are federal interference with state governance and are too costly.

The AP is reporting  In his letter, Perry cited a portion of the law that bars cross-gender searches and seeing inmates without clothing, saying that because 40 percent of prison guards in male units are women and complying with the law may mean the loss of job and promotion opportunities."

The state also will not raise the age — from 17 to 18 — at which it treats inmates as adults, Perry wrote. The rules, he added, do not allow for “differences among the states.”

States that do not comply could lose federal grant dollars. Three grants that totaled $23.9 million last year could be subjected to partial cuts, Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed said, adding that Texas has not been told how much money could be at stake.
County jails and local lockups can take measures to comply with the federal rules. Some already are, including the Harris County Jail, which revamped policies regarding the housing of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender inmates.


Source National Center Lesbian Rights

Do transgender prisoners have a right to be housed in a facility consistent with their gender identity?

Transsexual people who have not had genital surgery are generally classified according to their birth sex for purposes of prison housing, regardless of how long they may have lived as a member of the other gender, and regardless of how much other medical treatment they may have undergone[1] -- a situation which puts male-to-female transsexual women at great risk of sexual violence. Transsexual people who have had genital surgery are generally classified and housed according to their reassigned sex.

One mechanism that is sometimes used to protect transsexual women who are at risk of violence due to being housed in male prisons is to separate them from other prisoners. This is referred to as “administrative segregation.” On the positive side, placing a transgender or transsexual woman in administrative segregation may provide her with greater protection than being housed in the general population. On the negative side, however, administrative segregation also results in exclusion from recreation, educational and occupational opportunities, and associational rights.[2]

Do transsexual prisoners have a right to obtain hormone therapy while in prison?

Some transsexual prisoners are able to maintain their hormone treatment in prison.[3] The policy of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons is to provide hormones at the level that was maintained prior to incarceration. Specifically, the policy provides:

“It is the policy of the Bureau of Prisons to maintain the transsexual inmate at the level of change existing upon admission to the Bureau. Should responsible medical staff determine that either progressive or regressive treatment changes are indicated, these changes must be approved by the [Bureau of Prisons] Medical Director prior to implementation. The use of hormones to maintain secondary sexual characteristics may be continued at approximately the same levels as prior to incarceration, but such use must be approved by the Medical Director.”[4]
Even if the prison does provide hormones, however, there is no guarantee that they will be provided at the appropriate levels and with the necessary physical and psychological support services.[5] In addition, it is often difficult for transsexual prisoners to document a prior prescription for hormones, either because of the practical difficulties and limitations imposed by incarceration, or because many transsexual prisoners are indigent and do not have private physicians willing to advocate for them. Moreover, even when transsexual prisoners are able to provide sufficient documentation, prison officials may disregard or flout the policy.

The issue of whether a transsexual person is entitled to hormone therapy while in prison has been litigated extensively, based on the established constitutional principle that it is a violation of the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment for prison officials to exhibit “deliberate indifference” to a prisoner’s “serious medical needs.” Until the last several years, in almost every case, courts have ruled in favor of prison officials.[6] More recently, however, prisoners have had more success.[7]