(Boca Raton, Florida) Following more than a decade of lobbying by faculty members, admistrators and students, the Board of Trustees of Florida Atlantic University voted this morning to specifically include “sexual orientation” among the classes protected from discrimination and harassment.
“This is a small step forward for FAU,” said Rand Hoch, President and Founder of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, a local nonprofit organization founded in 1988, which is dedicated to dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
In 2005, the Council joined a longstanding coalition of gay, lesbian and allied activists at FAU who were working to have the school specifically include sexual orientation as a protected class in the university’s regulations.
“The credit today goes to the hard work which the LGBT and allied community at FAU has done over the years. Special recognition goes out to the efforts of student leader Boris Bastidas, who did an amazing job mobilizing students at the university this semester,” said Hoch.
The Council had hoped that the Trustees would also include “gender identity and expression” as a protected class.
“It is disappointing that they did not do so,” said Hoch.
While transgender and gender-variant employees on the FAU campuses in Palm Beach and Broward Counties are protected under local equal employment ordinances, those individuals working outside the two counties have no job protection.
“The tragedy is that despite today’s action by the Board of Trustees, transgender and gender-variant students have no legal protection on any the FAU campuses,” Hoch explained. “Hopefully LGBT activists and their allies at the university will be able to persuade the Trustees to protect the entire student body from harassment and discrimination in the very near future.”
The Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, Inc. is dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
The Council promotes equality through education, advocacy, direct action, impact litigation, and community outreach.
Palm Beach County Human Rights Council
Post Office Box 267
West Palm Beach, Florida 33402
(561) 804-9399
www.pbchrc.org pbchrc@gmail.com
Media Provided by the www.GayWebSource.com – Gay News Media and Press Network.
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