Equality Florida

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A list of all Municipalities and States that have included gender identity or expression in their non-discrimination laws.

A detailed FL specific chart

Name Change Kit

Online discrimination reporting for victims and their families.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Gender Characteristics
Primary or secondary sexual characteristics such as height, weight, shape, and facial/body hair.

Gender Expression
The manifestation of an individuals fundamental sense of being masculine or feminine through clothing, behavior, grooming, etc.

Gender Identity
An inner sense of being male or female.

Gender Stereotypes
Mental templates we all have for how each sex should look, dress, and act.

Gender Stereotyping
The act of trying to compel an individual's conformity to gender stereotypes.

School Violence
An umbrella term for a range of aggressions at school, from fistfights to school shootings. Also increasingly used to encompass severe social violence use to humiliate or harm.

Sex
Biological sex, as evidenced by chromosomes, body type, genitals, and physical characteristics.

Transgender
An umbrella term that includes individuals who have or want to change sexes or crossdress.

Transsexual
A specific term for someone who has or wants to change sexes.

Glossary Courtesy of Gender PAC

RESOURCES
HRC Transgender Issues in the Workplace:
A Tool For Managers - (download PDF)

Transgender Fact Sheet - (download PDF)

National Center for Transgender Equality and
HRC Coming out as transgender guide - (download PDF)

Fact Sheet on Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (Matthew Shepard Act) - (download PDF)

Press release NGLTF sent out about ENDA- signed by EQFL

A Moment of Truth
September 29, 2007
Don't get angry, get organized. That's an old activist slogan to remind us that in a fight we do better to get strategic than to simply lash out. (more)

GOAL

Equality Florida’s seeks to protect all Floridians from discrimination based on gender identity or expression.

BACKGROUND

At some time in their life, almost every American, gay or straight, is shamed, harassed, isolated or even attacked because they don’t meet someone’s expectation of masculinity or femininity.

In July, 2005 a Tampa man was convicted of killing his three-year-old son because he thought the boy acted like a “sissy” and would grow up to be gay. He thought he could “toughen the boy up” (ie. Make him more masculine) be forcing him to box. When the toddler couldn’t defend himself, the father punched him in the head, over and over again.

The term “transgender” includes a wide range of individuals who identify with or express characteristics typically associated with the opposite gender. This umbrella includes a full spectrum of people ranging from effeminate men and masculine women to transsexuals – people who have or want to change sexes.

Equality Florida believes that discrimination due to homophobia and transphobia are intimately related and both should be included in human rights protections throughout Florida.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Does your community have a Human Rights Ordinance that includes both sexual orientation and gender identity? Get involved in adding both of these categories to you local HRO by calling your regional director today.
Join Equality Florida. Our work is not possible without the financial support of people like you who care about the lives of Florida’s most vulnerable citizens - our children.

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