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Archive | Policy Advocacy

HRA Now Issuing Common Benefit Identification Cards WITHOUT gender marker!!

Most New Yorkers will know CBIC’s (pictured below) as their benefits or food stamps cards. The Human Resources Administration (HRA) has undergone a policy change allowing them to issue CBIC’s (Common Benefit Identification Cards) without gender markers on them. CBIC’s are commonly used to access services like (TANF) Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Medicaid, and […]

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Today 4/22: SRLP at #HALTSolitaryConfinement advocacy day in Albany, NY

Today, April 22, SRLP’s Prisoner Justice Project Director Mik Kinkead and Outreach Director Juana Peralta are in Albany at the #HALTSolitaryConfinement Advocacy Day with NY Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement advocating to end the use of solitary confinement and other forms of extreme isolation in NY prison and jails.   Over 3,800 people are in […]

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SRLP membership meeting Tuesday 1/13, plus a new NYC municipal ID resource!

Tomorrow, January 13, from 6-8 PM, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project is holding our first membership meeting of the new year, and we want to see you! We have exciting changes to share and successes to celebrate, including the launching of our new series “Everyday Abolition,” updates about our trans healthcare and Medicaid campaigng, and […]

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SRLP Celebrates Community-Led Orgs on Our NYC Birth Certificate Victory

After more than 10 years of advocacy from community-led organizations, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has finally removed the requirement of surgery for changing the gender marker on a birth certificate. This is a huge victory. Since we opened our doors in 2002, SRLP has worked to remove this requirement. […]

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Take a Two Minute Action for Trans Lives!

Trans people born in New York City still can’t update our birth certificates to reflect our gender without undergoing invasive and often inaccessible surgeries. Without this change to our ID documents, trans people can face serious obstacles in accessing employment, housing, and basic services. Having documentation that doesn’t match our gender can often trigger bias, harassment, discrimination, or […]

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Anti-Violence Advocates Against Deportation Statement at NY City Council Committee on Immigration Hearing on 10/15/14

New York City Council Committee on Immigration October 15, 2014 Hearing Anti-Violence Advocates Against Deportation Testimony in support of Int. 0487-2014 Anti-Violence Advocates Against Deportation antiviolencenyc@gmail.com My name is Juana Peralta from the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. I am reading the statement of the Anti-Violence Advocates Coalition Against Deportation which is based on our letter […]

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SRLP & Anti-Violence Advocates Against Deportation Coalition Testify at City Hall

Since 2011, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project has been hard at work with a coalition of organizations in New York City, the Anti-Violence Advocates Against Deportation Coalition, to shine a light and put a stop on the abuse caused by ICE’s collaboration with local law enforcement in New York. Last week, SRLP Director of Outreach […]

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John Skwiersky

TUNE IN at 7 PM on 10/16: SRLP Attorney John Skwiersky to Speak on Birth Certificates with Corey Johnson on NY1

Tune in tonight to NY1’s Inside City Hall to hear a panel conversation with New York City Council Member Corey Johnson and SRLP Attorney John Skwiersky on issues facing low-income trans people and trans people of color, including a conversation on the NY City Council’s proposed birth certificate policy. Visit http://www.ny1.com/content/politics/inside_city_hall/ to stream it live. For more […]

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SRLP Commends New York City Council on Proposed Birth Certificate Policy

Since the Sylvia Rivera Law Project opened our doors in 2002, we have been at the forefront of the battle to make birth certificate changes more accessible to transgender people. Since 1970, New York City and State’s rules for a person changing their gender on their birth certificate had been very restrictive, requiring extensive evidence of invasive […]

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BREAKING: New York State Updates Birth Certificate Policy, Removing Surgical Requirement

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project is excited to announce that after ten years of hard work and negotiations New York State has made an important policy change that eliminates barriers to identity documents by allowing transgender New Yorkers to change the gender marker on their birth certificate without undergoing surgery. People born in New York […]

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