Assemblymember Harry B. Bronson (D-Rochester/Chili/Henrietta) announced the passage of legislation he authored that would protect the personal safety and privacy of victims of domestic violence as well as transgender individuals (A.9409).

“Acts of domestic violence and discrimination have no place in our society,” said Assemblymember Bronson. “We must protect victims of domestic violence and transgender individuals who may be at risk of such deplorable acts. The protections afforded in this bill are vital to ensuring the personal safety of many of our fellow New Yorkers.”

The bill authored by Assemblymember Bronson would waive the information that is required to be published when individuals choose to legally change their names in order to avoid acts of violence or discrimination, or to conform with their gender identity or gender expression. Specifically, the bill would make this waiver available to individuals attempting to avoid potential or actual domestic violence, stalking, hate crimes or sexual assault.

In 2009, the Supreme Court of Westchester County ruled that the civil rights law authorizes the waiver of publication of a name change order if such publication would jeopardize the safety of the individual seeking the name change. Unfortunately, some courts require an actual showing of past violence to meet the “personal safety waiver” standard. Bringing state statute into accordance with the need for full personal safety is an important step toward ensuring these waiver protections are available to individuals who need them, noted Assemblymember Bronson.

Roughly 450,000 incidents of domestic violence are reported in New York State each year,¹ and in 2012, state courts issued over 300,000 orders of protection.² At the same time, nearly 30 percent of transgender New Yorkers have experienced serious physical or sexual assault.³

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1. opdv.state.ny.us/help/fss/theproblem.html#facts

2. opdv.ny.gov/statistics/nydata/2012/nys2012data.pdf

3. prideagenda.org/advancing-justice/transgender-equality-justice/facts-about-discrimination