Public Policy Agenda

The Empire State Pride Agenda is New York's statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights and advocacy group.

Our mission is to win equality and justice for LGBT New Yorkers and our families. We recognize that while significant cultural, legal and governmental advances have led to greater equality for LGBT New Yorkers, we and our families remain highly vulnerable without the vast majority of rights and protections that most New Yorkers take for granted.

Through our education, organizing and advocacy programs, we work toward creating a broadly diverse alliance of LGBT people and our allies in government, communities of faith, labor, all sectors of the workforce and other social justice movements to achieve equality for LGBT New Yorkers and the broader goals of social, racial and economic justice.

The two separate corporate entities of the Pride Agenda -- namely the Empire State Pride Agenda Foundation, Inc. and the Empire State Pride Agenda, Inc. -- utilized a collaborative process to create this joint document reflecting our shared public policy priorities. In keeping with our mission, it focuses on the Pride Agenda’s priorities for New York State and its localities, exclusive of federal issues.

Equality and Justice as New Yorkers

Basic Premise: All individuals have the right to protection from discrimination and bias-motivated harassment and violence. To secure these rights, we must:

• Secure measures that explicitly prohibit discrimination against transgender New Yorkers in employment, housing, public accommodations and the extension of credit.
• Ensure the enforcement of measures like the Dignity for All Students Act and seek additional measures to promote the safety and well-being of LGBT youth and the children of LGBT parents by preventing harassment and discrimination in public schools, foster care, juvenile detention and homeless shelters, and by providing access to medically accurate, comprehensive, LGBT culturally competent sex education.
• Support policies and procedures that allow transgender New Yorkers to use appropriate gender markers on their driver licenses, birth certificates and other state identification without discriminatory governmental intrusion into matters of gender identity and expression.
• Ensure that New York’s Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA) fulfills its promise of ending discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment, housing, public accommodations, education and extension of credit, especially by fostering LGBT-friendly workplaces and unions, and ensuring equal treatment by governmental entities.
• Help ensure that LGBT New Yorkers as they age are supported by programs that are responsive to their needs and respect both their individual dignity and their caregiving relationships, including the companionship of their partners and families.
• Oppose discrimination in health insurance for transgender New Yorkers, and support measures that allow for access to safe, respectful healthcare that is appropriate to individuals, regardless of their gender identity or expression.
• Support and nurture inclusive spiritual and religious spaces that celebrate LGBT congregants in a spirit of love.
• Support efforts to prevent and respond to hate crimes across the state.
• Educate state, county and local governments about the inequity of using public funds to do business with companies that discriminate against LGBT people in any way.
• Oppose attempts to stigmatize or criminalize people living with HIV/AIDS.

Equal Protection for Our Families

Basic Premise: The families of LGBT people – the caregiving units we form to support each other and nurture our children – deserve the support of government and society. To end the discriminatory treatment of our families, we must:

• Protect the ability of same-sex couples to marry and oppose all attempts, including constitutional amendments and so-called “Defense of Marriage Acts,” to limit access to marriages by same-sex couples.
• Ensure that public and private entities, including employers, businesses, unions and government agencies, honor and respect the marriages of same-sex couples legally performed in New York State and elsewhere.
• Prevent discrimination against LGBT families in such areas as insurance, inheritance and taxation, including the taxation of insurance benefits to same-sex partners and spouses.
• Support efforts to secure equal parenting rights for LGBT people including: giving LGBT people equal opportunity to adopt and provide foster care; protecting LGBT parents from having their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression used against them when determining child custody or visitation; and promoting access to safe and affordable reproductive health services and technologies.
• Educate companies about the importance of providing and continuing to provide domestic partnership benefits to non-married couples, even in states where same-sex couples are legally allowed to to marry, especially in light of the complexities arising from continuing discrimination against same-sex couples at the national and international level.

Our Fair Share of Governmental Benefits and Services

Basic Premise: New York State must live up to its constitutional promise of providing a health and social service safety net that works for the common good of all New Yorkers. To ensure this access, we must:

• Secure and increase funding specifically targeted to meet the ongoing health and human service needs of New York’s LGBT communities.
• Secure equal treatment and access to services for LGBT New Yorkers from all state and local agencies through their policies, regulations, programs and funding streams, including in the areas of mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence and homeless services.
• Support equal insurance coverage in public health programs like Medicaid for the specific, medically necessary health care needs of transgender New Yorkers like hormone therapy and/or transition-related surgeries.
• Support policy reform to end discrimination against our families in state, county and local government relief and entitlement programs such as Workers’ Compensation, Unemployment Compensation and public employee death benefits.
• Promote the consistent inclusion of reliable, valid questions about LGBT identity and family status in statewide health surveys and other data collection by state and local government.
• Support efforts to obtain adequate funding to meet the needs of all communities in New York State affected by HIV/AIDS.
• Support programs to prevent and combat the abuse of alcohol and drugs such as crystal methamphetamine (“crystal meth”).

Creating a Fair and Just New York

Basic Premise: Our fight for the rights of LGBT New Yorkers is part of a broader vision of a more fair and just New York State. To achieve that vision, we are an organization that welcomes the active involvement of allies as advocates and supporters. In recognition of our alliance with other marginalized communities and in order to assure them of our commitment to our common struggles for equality and justice, we support actions that:

• Require that all people have the right to sexual privacy and control of their own bodies, including full access to reproductive healthcare and safe abortions.
• Further racial equality and justice.
• Seek sexual and gender equality, including combating violence against women.
• Encourage workplaces that treat workers with respect and dignity, including the ability of workers to organize.
• Break down barriers based on class and economic status.
• Promote equality and justice for immigrants and refugees.
• Improve the health of New Yorkers by increasing access to both physical and mental healthcare.
• Foster a more transparent, effective and accountable state government.
• Promote a fair, just and humane criminal justice system.
• Seek affordable housing for the poor and shelter for the homeless.
• Promote equality and justice for people with disabilities in healthcare and employment, as well as equal access to education, public transportation and services.
• Support clean air, water and land in recognition that a sustaining environment is the minimum requirement for a productive life.