February 23, 2007
IN TRANSIT
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Ride to work... or discrimination? |
When a team from Housing Works met last week with MTA director for policy and media relations, Ernest Tollerson, he may not have been the most responsive guy in the world. But at least he was there.
Charles King, Housing Works' president and CEO; Diana Oliva, a social worker; and Lynne Walker, director of the Transgender Transitional Housing Program, got together with Tollerson and two lawyers from MTA/New York City Transit Authority at the MTA's Manhattan headquarters. The encounter was a result of a raucous protest outside that very building three weeks prior which sought to bring much-needed attention to the case of transgender Housing Works staffer Tracy Bumpus. (See article in 2/2 issue of the Update.)
Housing Works is suing an MTA employee who, last summer, subjected Bumpus to vicious homophobic and transphobic epithets, thereby violating her protected human rights. Housing Works is also suing the NYCTA for failing to properly train and supervise its employees.
Much was learned at the meeting, during which King expressed Housing Works' profound dismay about what happened to Bumpus and asked the MTA to take the steps necessary to preventing further transgender discrimination. (The details of the lawsuit were not discussed.) Tollerson, who was cordial if occasionally dismissive, revealed that the MTA had begun administrative proceedings against the transit worker who verbally attacked Bumpus. Richard Schoolman, one of the attorneys, explained that MTA police do get transgender sensitivity training, and said he would look into extending such trainings to all its front-line workers.
"Why are we having this meeting?"
Housing Works wants the MTA to establish an agency-wide policy directive that prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender-identity and expression, but Tollerson's team said that was unlikely because the NYCTA doesn't tolerate rude behavior across the board.
"It's not enough to say the MTA doesn't tolerate rudeness. We still live in a society where it is generally acceptable to harass individuals based on gender identity and expression," says King. "It is incumbent upon the MTA to be explicit in saying this type of behavior is not permissible." King suggested to Tollerson that the MTA follow the lead of the Port Authority, which swiftly cleaned up its gender-bashing imbroglio last fall.
At press time, neither Tollerson nor Schoolman could be reached for comment on further implementation of policy to protect the rights of gender minorities.
When Oliva produced a copy of the New York City Human Rights Law that protects Bumpus, Tollerson and co. were clearly taken off-guard. Walker was irked by how they tried to backpedal. "They made a good rhetorical point that they don't need a law to do the right thing. I wanted to say, 'Then why are we having this meeting?', because clearly they haven't done the right thing." Walker kept her cool, though, and will remain patient with the guardians of our public transit system—at least for now. The MTA will be back at the table with a list of reforms in March. "Talk is cheap," Walker says. "I look forward to another meeting to see exactly what they have done."