Director's Note

Dear residents, neighbors, and friends:

So far, in the 2023 legislative session politicians around the country have introduced more than 490 bills restricting the rights of the LGBQT+ community. These bills, which primarily target transgender youth, are being introduced in six primary areas: health care access; schools and education; free speech and expression; access to accurate IDS; weakening of civil rights laws; public accommodations. There is a seventh area that includes bills, like the five that include proposed amendments to define transgender people out of existence, that do not fit into any of the other categories. After the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) tracked a record-breaking 278 bills targeting the LGBTQ community, they established a digital dashboard to help advocates, organizers, and allies take action. 

The District joins three other states (Wisconsin, Illinois, Delaware) in having no anti-LGBTQ laws in the 2023 session. This is not surprising because the District has been a leader in protecting the human and civil rights of the LGBTQ community since the 1970s. On May 23, 1972, the D.C. School Board extended the first civil rights protections for the LGBTQ community when it passed a fair employment resolution covering all school employees. By prohibiting discrimination in hiring, employment, retirement, and/or job classification practices, the resolution gave teachers job security for the first time. Later that year, the city agreed that considering both case law privacy in the U.S. and the legislative history of the D.C. sodomy law, that it would no longer prosecute anyone for private, consensual adult sodomy. 

The efforts to protect the LGBTQ community have continued through the present. Most recently, Councilmember Trayon White (Ward 8) introduced the Stormiyah Denson-Jackson Economic Damages Equity Act of 2022. The act was named after a 12-year-old who tragically died by suicide at a District boarding school. It is intended to end the long-standing practice of reducing money damages paid as part of personal injury and wrongful death suits based on the person’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity. The law was signed by Mayor Muriel Bowser in November 2022, was transmitted to Congress in January 2023, is now effective as of February 23, 2023. 

The theme for Capital Pride this year focuses on how the social justice movements created a revolution that has lead to expanded freedoms for the LGBTQ community. Discrimination and prejudice will only end if we collectively call it out and eradicate it in all its forms. 

If you or someone you know has been discriminated against in educational institutions, employment, housing, and public accommodations and government services, please visit ohr.dc.gov to learn more about how to file a complaint, attend one of our Open Houses or Listening Labs, or participate in one of our Human Rights Liaison or Know Your Rights trainings. Information about these events and trainings will be available in the event section of our website and in our What’s New and Upcoming section in our monthly newsletter.  

In Solidarity,

Hnin Khaing

Director