Erika Lorshbough testifies for Intro 131 and intersex protections
Erika Lorshbough, executive director of Interact, says intersex people face high rates of discrimination. She says Intro 131 would make anti-discrimination protections explicit in the city human rights law and build on CCHR's historic administrative recognition.
I'll go ahead and start because I'm on the end.
Hi, everyone.
My name is Erica Lorschbaugh.
Any pronouns are fine.
Most folks use they or she.
And I'm a proud queer, intersex, and genderqueer New Yorker.
I'm also the executive director of Interact, the nation's largest intersex advocacy organization.
On behalf of Interact, we so appreciate the chairs bringing Intro 131 onto today's agenda.
Intersex variations can look many different ways, but as a group, intersex people face some of the highest rates of discrimination in the community,
often higher than other groups in the LGBTQ plus umbrella, and more than triple the rate of all people of any sexual orientation or gender identity who don't have intersex traits.
Councilmember Caban's bill, Intro 131, would make anti-discrimination protections for intersex people explicit on the face of the city human rights law, including in housing, employment, and public accommodations.
Years ago, the City Commission on Human Rights broke ground for the intersex folks who live in, work in, and visit our city by extending the law's sex and gender-based protections to people with intersex traits through administrative decision-making.
This was a genuinely historic move.
We celebrated it, and it cut a path that many other jurisdictions have followed since, including New York State.
But back then, nobody could anticipate the vicious attacks that our community faces today.
These attacks on basic human sex and gender diversity are primarily aimed at trans people, especially trans women, but they have an equally intense and often invisible or poorly understood impact on intersex people as well.
Making anti-discrimination protections plain and permanent in the city code will help intersex New Yorkers understand and embrace their rights, and it will inform employers, businesses, and housing providers as well.
It's a simple move in a way, thanks to the Commission's existing interpretation, but for a community that disproportionately experiences invisibility, exclusion, and discrimination, this clarity and permanence in the law can make a genuine difference.
And a genuine difference is what is needed now for intersex people more than ever before.
size of our democracy, we don't rest on administrative action when fundamental rights are under assault.
We gather the political will to enshrine our values of equality as permanent law.
We have the will, and the need is evident, and now is the time for this council to make New York City a leader on intersex rights once again.
Interact thanks the Civil and Human Rights Committee for hearing Intro 131 today.
We thank the Commission for their support, and we urge the Council to pass this law.
We're so grateful to you all for your time and support.