‘open-letter’ Archives
NYAGRA letter to NYS Senate Majority Leader Bruno
NYAGRA letter to NYS Senate Majority Leader Bruno re DASA & safe schools legislation (6.13.2003) New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy 24 W. 25th St., 9th floor New York, NY 10010 (212) 675-3288, ext. 266 Hon. Joseph L. Bruno Senate Majority Leader & President Pro Tem New York State Senate 909 Legislative Office Building Albany, NY 12247 13 June 2003 Dear Senator, I am writing to urge the New York State Senate in the final days of the 2003 session to meet with the New York State Assembly and reconcile the Senate Majority’s Schools as Safe Harbors Act (S.4023) with the Dignity for All Students Act (A.1118 / S.1925) so that every New York student can be protected from bias harassment and bullying in schools. The New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy is the first statewide transgender advocacy organization in New York, and we advocate on behalf of transgendered and gender-variant people throughout the state. NYAGRA is a member of the Dignity for All Students Coalition, a consortium of over 170 community groups statewide [...]
NYAGRA letter to NYS Senate Majority Leader Bruno re DASA & safe schools legislation (6.13.2003)
New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy 24 W. 25th St., 9th floor New York, NY 10010 (212) 675-3288, ext. 266 www.nyagra.com Hon. Joseph L. Bruno Senate Majority Leader & President Pro Tem New York State Senate 909 Legislative Office Building Albany, NY 12247 13 June 2003 Dear Senator, I am writing to urge the New York State Senate in the final days of the 2003 session to meet with the New York State Assembly and reconcile the Senate Majority’s Schools as Safe Harbors Act (S.4023) with the Dignity for All Students Act (A.1118 /S.1925) so that every New York student can be protected from bias harassment and bullying in schools. The New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy is the first statewide transgender advocacy organization in New York, and we advocate on behalf of transgendered and gender-variant people throughout the state. NYAGRA is a member of the Dignity for All Students Coalition, a consortium of over 170 community groups statewide committed to ending bias-harassment and discrimination in the state’s public [...]
NYAGRA open letter to the community
9 May 2002 Dear colleagues, It is with some sadness that we write to inform you of recent developments affecting the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy, Inc. We had hoped to write with only good news - namely, the passage of Int. No. 24 (the transgender rights bill) by the New York City Council on April 24 and the signing of the bill into law by the mayor on April 30. Unfortunately, at the moment of our greatest legislative victory, some disturbing developments have distracted us from the advocacy work for which NYAGRA was founded in the first place. This letter is intended to communicate to LGBT community members some of the salient facts concerning an ongoing situation involving NYAGRA. Put in the simplest terms, the current conflict has been initiated by a terminated ex-employee determined to regain her job by unseating the Board of Directors that hired her. Jamie Hunter commenced a campaign of public vilification against NYAGRA and its Board of Directors after she was terminated from at-will employment (2.22.2002). In this effort, she has been joined by a few [...]
NYAGRA’s Response to ESPA’s Open Letter to New York’s LGBT Community on SONDA
This letter from the board of directors of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy is intended as a response to the open letter to the LGBT community from the Empire State Pride Agenda regarding the issue of transgender inclusion in the the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA). In our view, the open letter from Joe Grabarz (executive director) and Matt Foreman (executive director, 1997-2001) is an entirely inadequate response to the call for a fully transgender-inclusive SONDA bill that we and other transgender advocacy organizations have made. In the letter, the Pride Agenda leadership asserts that "we have done more to make government responsive to transgender issues than any other single organization in the state." We in NYAGRA would like to think that we have contributed as much, if not more so, to that effort than has ESPA. After all, when we first met with the Pride Agenda staff in November 1998 (shortly after our formation in June 1998), ESPA was really doing nothing on transgender issues, and it was that meeting that prompted ESPA to begin taking [...]
An Open Letter to Gender Rights Activists
In late 2000 and early 2001, controversy erupted within the transgender community around the new strategic direction for GenderPAC announced by Riki Anne Wilchins, GenderPAC’s executive director. In response, 22 activists signed an open letter to the community in January 2001. For more information on that controversy, read the open letter. Jan. 3, 2001 Dear Friends and Colleagues: We are writing to you to express our concern about the current crisis in transgender politics. We think it is time to start a broadly based dialogue to examine productive responses to this situation. The new century brings with it considerable opportunity and promise for the transgender community, particularly in view of the organizing taking place on the state and local level. The formation of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA) in June 1998 and the recent launch of the Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey (GRAANJ) represent a significant advance for the transgender political communities in the Northeast. Existing transgender groups like [...]
