February 2, 2007
TRANSIT STRIKE
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Director of Housing Works' E. 9th St. facility, Eric Morales, at the demo |
No one thought it would be so easy.
With the mercury nearing single digits, some 60 Housing Works staff and clients gathered at 8:30am in a spirited picket on Madison Avenue last week in front of New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority (NYCTA) headquarters. At issue was NYCTA discrimination against transgender Housing Works employee Tracy Bumpus, 40.
Last summer, an NYCTA employee subjected Bumpus to a long, public, and virulently homophobic and transphobic tirade after she asked for help with a malfunctioning Metro card at her stop on the A and C subway lines. Two subway riders who witnessed the incident later followed Bumpus when she got off the train and hurled more homophobic epithets at her, causing Bumpus to fear for her safety. Returning to her subway station a week later, Bumpus was again mocked by the NYCTA employee in front of another NYCTA employee.
The harassment eventually led to Housing Works' decision to sue the NYCTA employee for gender discrimination—a violation of the city's Human Rights Law—as well as the NYCTA itself, for failing to properly train and supervise its employees, and to deal with the incident.
As MTA employees, board members and journalists filed into 347 Madison on the way to the 9:30am MTA board meeting, the raucous Housing Works demonstrators marched, held signs and chanted "We Pay Our Fair, so MTA, Treat Us Fair" and "MTA Needs Sensitivity Training ASAP." The longer the event went on, the more celebratory it became, with a group of trans folks striking glamorous poses for reporters covering the protest. Alexandra Mitchell, bundled up in down, told the Update that she braved the cold because "as an African American woman, I'm used to seeing people discriminated against." Victoria Jackson, a transgender HIV positive Housing Works client sporting a spiffy full-length purple coat reminded the Update that discrimination affects mental health and "mental well being affects our immune system."
While some tirelessly continued to march and chant and others lined up in hopes of getting into the board meeting in order to speak on Bumpus' behalf, word soon spread about an hour into the demo that the MTA—what do you know?—wanted to negotiate.
"If you create enough tension, you force dialogue," Housing Works ED Charles King said proudly.
The outcome of the negotiations was that the MTA allowed two representatives of Housing Works to make remarks about its handling of transgender discrimination during the public comment section of the morning's board meeting and agreed to meet with several representatives of Housing Works on Feb. 15 to discuss the handling of the Bumpus incident. In return, Housing Works agreed to suspend the protest. King proclaimed the day a success. "The goal today was to get the board to pay attention to the issue rather than just let it languish in the courts—that's exactly what happened."
While most of the demonstrators didn't get inside to hear it, Housing Works' two representatives, Director of Research Hayley Thompson and Director of Mental Health Services Nunzio Signorella, gave the MTA board a piece of their minds. Said Thompson. "It is shocking and unacceptable that transit employees, who are here to serve the public, would not only treat a passenger so disrespectfully without provocation but would willfully and irresponsibly endanger the safety of a passenger by singling her out for abuse. The attitudes of the transit workers who behaved so hatefully towards Ms. Bumpus are the same attitudes that fuel the high rates of hate violence against transgender individuals. Too often, transgender people are easy targets and crimes are not reported due to fear that authorities will not take the offenses seriously or will not treat them with respect, just as Tracy Bumpus experienced. Transgender sensitivity training must be mandated for all transit employees so that employees will act lawfully and demonstrate courtesy towards all passengers, regardless of their gender orientation." Go on, Hayley, and kudos to those who organized the demo and all who attended.
The MTA story is not necessarily over. The scheduled meeting is just to talk about general NYCTA policy regarding transgender citizens, not about the lawsuit, which is still pending. For now, Bumpus is demanding financial compensation for the mental and emotional distress. She also wants the NYCTA to conduct transgender sensitivity training for all its employees to prevent further discrimination and harassment. In a press release that went out the day before the demo, Bumpus said, "The woman who did this to me was there to protect me. Instead, she gave everyone on that subway platform the green light to harass me."