N.Y. State Weighs Transgender Anti-Discrimination Bill

ALBANY, N.Y. - A year after lawmakers legalized gay marriage, the next civil rights debate taking shape in Albany is discrimination against transgender New Yorkers who say they face it in employment and housing and when they're in public all because they stray from what's accepted as male and female norms in dress and behavior.

Legislation approved 81-59 by the state Assembly last week would add gender identity and expression to state laws banning discrimination based on race, religion, sex, disability and sexual orientation. It would become a hate crime, with increased penalties, to harass or attack someone for being transgender.