New York State Employees Required to Have ‘Gender Identity Toolkit’ Training

All New York State employees are required to have training in the state’s new “Gender Identity Toolkit,” a resource to ensure the special rights of transgender and other individuals who are not comfortable with their biological sex are acknowledged and put into practice.

According to the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations website, the Gender Identity Toolkit will introduce state employees to “key terms, language, concepts, and laws related to fostering a respectful workplace and appropriate customer service to individuals who are transgender or gender non-conforming (TGNC).

Topics of the training will include a “language primer” of terms used by those engaged in gender ideology, use of preferred pronouns, how to “be an ally” to gender dysphoric individuals in the workplace, and gender transition planning “resources” for TGNC individuals.

Breitbart News received a copy of the “e-learning course” titled “Gender Identity in the Workplace: A Toolkit for New York State Employees,” which provides definitions of terms used in the field of gender ideology that are dismissive of biological sex.

For example, some of the terms defined include:

Gender Fluid (adj.): A person whose gender identity and presentation shifts or is not fixed.

Gender Identity (noun): An individual’s concept of self as male, female, a blend of both, or neither. One’s gender identity can be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth. An individual’s gender identity may be consistent for their whole life or may change over time.

Gender Nonconforming (adj.): A broad term referring to people who do not behave in a way that conforms to traditional or societal expectations of their gender. It also includes people whose gender expression does not fit neatly into any one category. Expectations of gender vary across cultures and have changed over time.

…

Misgendering (verb): Attributing a gender to someone that is incorrect or does not align with their gender identity.

…

Queer (adj.): The term queer can include a variety of sexual orientations and gender identities that are anything except heterosexual and cisgender. In the past, the word queer was used to hurt and insult people. Some people find it offensive, particularly those who remember when the word was used in a painful way. Others use the word with pride to identify themselves. If you are unsure if it is appropriate to use queer to describe a person or a group of persons, ask them what label(s) they use for themselves.

Under the section titled “Dress and Grooming Policies,” the toolkit instructs:

Everyone has the right to choose when they want to begin dressing or living in a manner consistent with their gender identity. Agencies must allow them to do so regardless of whether they take steps to make a medical or legal transition.

The toolkit provides the following example of how a woman who wants to identify as a man must now be treated with regard to her work uniform:

Jesse is a transgender man who works in a job with two slightly different sets of uniforms; one set is usually issued to men and the other is usually issued to women. When Jesse requests to wear the “men’s” uniform, his supervisor says “of course” and promises to follow up. The supervisor then informs Jesse that she is sorry, but they do not make the men’s uniform in a size small enough for him. She then says that the differences between the two sets of uniforms are not that noticeable. The supervisor asks Jesse if he would be willing to wear the women’s uniform instead.

The prescribed resolution for this situation provided in the toolkit is:

[I]t is prohibited to require an employee to wear one style over another because of gender, sex, or sex stereotypes. In general, each uniform style should be available to all employees regardless of gender identity. State agencies must allow employees to dress consistently with their gender identity. Agencies may need to special order specific sizes for employees if they do not have them available.

In the section covering “Bathroom” policies, the toolkit states:

State agencies must allow employees to use gender-separated facilities, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, and to participate in gender-separated programs consistent with their gender identity regardless of their appearance, anatomy, medical history, sex assigned at birth, or gender indicated on identification and without requiring proof of gender identity … [I]ndividuals must be allowed to use the facility or service that corresponds with their gender identity. Failure to permit this is an unlawful discriminatory practice under the State’s Human Rights Law.

The toolkit provides the following example of a problem situation that must be resolved in favor of gender ideology as it relegates a woman’s privacy concerns to secondary status:

Charlie identifies as nonbinary and uses the pronouns they/them/theirs. The only gender-neutral bathroom at their worksite is on a different floor. Charlie chooses to use the nearby women’s bathroom because that is where Charlie feels the safest. One day, a new colleague enters the bathroom and gasps. Looking at Charlie, she asks, “Am I in the right bathroom?” Later, she complains to Charlie’s supervisor about there “being a man in the women’s bathroom.” The supervisor calls Charlie into her office and asks Charlie if they can use the gender-neutral bathroom from now on because other employees are uncomfortable using the same bathroom as them. When Charlie refuses, the supervisor says, “What does it say on your driver’s license? Show me some proof and then you can use the women’s bathroom.”

The toolkit instructs on how to resolve this situation:

The supervisor should not have asked Charlie to use the gender-neutral bathroom because another employee was uncomfortable. Charlie has a right to use the bathroom most consistent with their gender identity and safety, regardless of appearance, anatomy, medical history, sex assigned at birth, or gender shown on identification.

“The agency cannot require a transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) person to use a different bathroom to accommodate a complaining employee or customer,” the toolkit asserts. “If an individual expresses discomfort with sharing a gender-separated facility, the agency may accommodate that individual by allowing them to use a single-occupancy facility, such as a family-style or accessible bathroom.”

A memorandum issued by one New York State department to employees on February 1 and sent to Breitbart News says all state employees “must be made aware of the Gender identity Toolkit and know how to access a copy by March 31, 2021.”

“Once informed, all staff must sign the attached Gender Identity Toolkit RTF and submit to the appropriate Regional Training Office by March 31, 2021,” the memorandum states.

In November, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the arrival of the Gender Identity Toolkit on a day transgender rights activists call a “Transgender Day of Remembrance.” To honor “transgender people who have been lost to hate violence” during 2020, Cuomo ordered state landmarks to be illuminated in the “colors of the transgender flag – pink, white and light blue,” his office stated.

“[W]e are doubling down on our commitment to protecting and expanding the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming New Yorkers,” Cuomo said in a statement.

“Transgender and gender non-conforming people still face discrimination every day,” the governor added, “making it all the more critical to ensure New York’s state workforce has the tools, resources and understanding necessary to ensure New York always upholds the principles of dignity, respect and inclusivity.”