Since 1973, Washington, D.C. has protected a person’s choice in who they love. That year, D.C. City Council passed Title 34, a sweeping human rights law that included prohibitions against discrimination based on sexual orientation, in addition to many other classes.  The passage of Title 34 made D.C. one of the first major cities to provide protections based on sexual orientation, and later, D.C. would also become one of the first to protect one’s gender identity, when it was added to the Human Rights Act in 2006.

Title 34 of course was the predecessor to and laid the foundation for the passage of the D.C. Human Rights Act of 1977. The Office of Human Rights has worked hard over the last 45 years to sustain these protections and to advance our enforcement in anti-discrimination. Today, we are proud to have 21 protected traits, covering the areas of educational institutions, housing, employment, public accommodations, and government services.

Only the District of Columbia and 16 states allow same-sex couples to adopt children and prohibit health insurance discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Similarly, D.C. is among less than half the states that provide explicit prohibitions against discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. In recent years, there have been heated debates over the rights of trans individuals to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. The Office of Human Rights launched a campaign in 2014 to increase awareness around District laws that require single stall bathrooms to be gender neutral. The campaign also modernized the ways in which these violations could be reported by allowing community members to contact OHR through social media. The District also has extensive guidance on usage of not only restrooms but locker rooms and similar facilities, explaining that a person must be permitted to use the facility consistent with their gender identity, not their assigned sex at birth. The debate over gender identity and expression has extended to schools related activities.

Despite developments in legal protections, in 2021, over 370 transgender people were killed in our nation, making it the deadliest year since record keeping began, and so far in 2022, at least 14 transgender people have been killed.

So, it is clear that while we have made legal progress, we must continue to work hard and work together to uphold our hard-fought victories in human rights laws. What this means is that though acceptance and tolerance has increased dramatically in parts of the country, hate crimes are still far too prevalent and there is much to be done to promote inclusion of our community members no matter who they love and how they express themselves.

Friends--Everyone has the right to feel valued, welcomed, and respected regardless of their gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. If we stand together, we can fight to end discrimination in the District and beyond.

People who identify as bisexual experience alarming rates of invisibility, social rejection, violence, discrimination, and poor physical and mental higher at higher rates than those who identify as gay or lesbian.