Meghan Freed in Connecticut Law Tribune Article on Connecticut Transgender Anti-Bias Law

Meghan Freed was featured in a Connecticut Law Tribune article entitled “Transgender Activists Say State Anti-Bias Law Is Working.”

According to the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, in the three years since Connecticut enacted a law banning discrimination based on gender identity, the commission has not received a single discrimination complaint based on gender identity or expression.  The dearth of complaints to the state’s civil rights regulators does not mean that transgender people and those who identify with or express themselves as members of the opposite sex do not face discrimination.

According to Freed, one of the biggest impact of Connecticut’s antidiscrimination laws has been in the area of health care.  However, medical services for gender transition are still classified as a medical disorder called “gender dysphoria,” although advocates bridle at the notion that the issue is an illness of sorts, Freed said. Gender dysphoria is a diagnosis listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” and refers to people who strongly identify with and want to be the opposite gender.

“The monetary reality of costs associated with gender transition is a huge deal,” Freed said. “It’s an affirmative thing.”

Full article here.