NY Gay Rights Law Passes

[Guest Pulsator]

NY Big News: The first state gay rights bill to be introduced in a legislature, way back in the 1970s, has finally received legislative approval and will soon be signed by our governor. This is a real breakthrough, although a bittersweet victory in some ways, because there was lots of tension over the past few years with the newly-emerged transgender rights lobby about the failure of the measure to provide protection on grounds of "gender identity." That's next on the agenda.

The tension is also playing out at the national level, as the "powers that be" in the movement are now sharply divided about whether the national gay rights bill (which has no chance of passage so long as Republicans control both the White House and Congress) should be expanded to include "gender identity."

That's grounds for an interesting philosophical debate. Should sexual orientation and gender identity be paired, or do they present such different issues that they need to be considered separately?