NYC Commission on Human Rights Legal Enforcement Guidance on Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Expression: Local Law No. 3 (2002); N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-102

The New York City Human Rights Law (“NYCHRL”) prohibits discrimination in employment, public accommodations, and housing. It also prohibits discriminatory harassment and bias-based profiling by law enforcement. The NYCHRL, pursuant to the 2005 Civil Rights Restoration Act, must be construed “independently from similar or identical provisions of New York state or federal statutes,” such that “similarly worded provisions of federal and state civil rights laws [are] a floor below which the City’s Human Rights law cannot fall, rather than a ceiling above which the local law cannot rise.”1

The New York City Commission on Human Rights (the “Commission”) is the City agency charged with enforcing the NYCHRL. People interested in vindicating their rights under the NYCHRL can choose to file a complaint with the Commission’s Law Enforcement Bureau within one (1) year of the discriminatory act or, in the case of gender-based harassment, within three (3) years of the discriminatory act.2 Alternatively, a complaint can be filed in court within three (3) years of the discriminatory act.

The NYCHRL prohibits discrimination by most employers, housing providers, and public accommodations on the basis of gender. The term gender “shall include actual or perceived sex, gender identity, and gender expression including a person's actual or perceived gender-related self-image, appearance, behavior, expression, or other gender-related characteristic, regardless of the sex assigned to that person at birth.”

This document serves as the Commission’s legal enforcement guidance on the NYCHRL’s protections as they apply to discrimination based on gender, gender identity, and gender expression, which constitute gender discrimination under the NYCHRL. This document is not intended to serve as an exhaustive list of all forms of gender-based discrimination claims under the NYCHRL.

Legislative Intent

In 2002, the New York City Council passed the Transgender Rights Bill to expand the scope of the gender-based protections guaranteed under the NYCHRL and to ensure protection for people whose “gender and self-image do not fully accord with the legal sex assigned to them at birth.” The City’s intent in amending the law was to make explicit that the law prohibits discrimination against people based on gender identity.

The legislative history reflects that people face frequent and severe discrimination based on gender identity, and protection from discrimination is “very often a matter of life and death.” Recognizing the profoundly debilitating impact of gender-based discrimination on transgender, non-binary, and other gender non-conforming people, the amendment makes clear that “gender-based discrimination—including, but not limited to, discrimination based on a person’s actual or perceived sex, and discrimination based on a person’s gender identity, self-image, appearance, behavior, or expression—constitutes a violation of the City’s Human Rights Law.” In 2018, City Council amended the definition of “gender” in the NYCHRL to reflect a broader and inclusive understanding of gender.

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