The Transgender Equality Act

Resolution History

Overview

Though the Transgender Equality Act failed by only 1% of the votes cast, its contraversial nature managed to attract over 330 nations to respond to the official UN forum poll. The debate on the resolution while it was on the floor resulted in 21 pages of posts on the UN forum, and another 5 pages of debate following the resolution. The previous two resolutions, Mitigation of Large Reservoirs and The Microcredit Bazaar only had discussions of 8 and 7 pages in lenght. It is important to note that prior to reaching the UN two separate 7-page threads for the draft proposals also managed to help make this resolution one of the most debated resolutions in 2005. After the resolution failed, the proponents of the measure started work on a revised proposal hoping to attract enough swing voters to try again.

Proposal Campaign

UN Debate

Through the first four days of debate, the votes in favour of the resolution held a lead of several hundred votes over those against, but on the last day of voting the 622 votes cast by The West Pacific were the deciding factor in the outcome of this resolution.

Resolution Text

Description: We, the United Nation, recognize the basic human rights of all individuals, including the transgender people. The Transgender Equality Act seeks to extend civil rights and fair treatment to members of the transgender community.

Believing that Human right is a rooted in belief in human dignity, and that everyone, including members of the transgender community, deserves to be treated with dignity and respect regardless of gender identities or expression

Defining a transgender person to be any person who has a gender that is different than the sex that he or she is assigned at birth ; any intersexes person; anyone who expresses their genders in a way that contravenes societal expectations

Definning Gender Identity as a person’s innate sense of self while gender expression constitutes one’s presentation of his or her gender.

Taking into account that everyone has the freedom of choice as outlined in the resolution of Universal Freedom of Choice to act in a way that might or might not fit with conventional gender stereotype as long as it does not infringe on the freedom of another person.

Recognizes that biological factors, such as one’s brain receptor for hormones, plays a role in the determination of one’s “brain sex” as opposed to one’s “physical sex.”

Acknowledges than that Gender Identity Disorder is a recognized health issue that involves a person’s brain sex being different than his or her biological sex.

Convinced than that sex reassignment surgeries and its related medical procedures should be legal and allowed in order to alleviate the psychological pain and suffering caused people with GID.

Acknowledging that many transgender people are discriminated against in all area of life, including in employments and health care.

Noting with satisfaction that a significant number of human right laws have already been approved by the United Nation.

Noting with Regrets, however, that none of the past human rights resolutions made any mention on the right of the transgender person.

Be it resolved that the Transgender Equality Act be recognized and declared by the United Nation.

Article one: One’s gender identity or expression shall be included as a prohibited ground of discrimination; any transgender person should receive the same right as everyone else residing in all U.N member countries.

Article two: Considering that a transgender person is much more likely to be targeted for hate violence, law enforcement authorities should be encouraged to access anti-transgender training so they can adequately and sufficiently deliver justice to members of the transgender community.

Article 3: All Anti transgender discrimination in hiring, promotion, training and dismissal will be illegal in all U.N countries.

Article 4: Everyone has the right to wellness psychologically and emotionally therefore; Sex Reassignment Surgeries and Hormonal treatments should be legal and reasonably accessible to people who have GID. Medical personnel are not allowed to refuse treatments to a transgender person based on discrimination against transgender people.

Article 5: Transsexuals who had undergone sex reassignment surgeries will have his or her new gender be legally recognized. Other transgender people, including cross dressers, feminine men, and masculine women will continue to be legally defined by their biological sex at birth.

Votes For: 6,917

Votes Against: 7,226

Implemented: Thu Aug 18 2005

Gameplay Impacts

This resolution had no significant impacts on changing the way NationStates is played. However, the resolution was significant in encouraging a large participation in the UN forum debates and also included a poll asking nations if they voted yes, no, or abstained. With 310 responses at the time debate had closed it is possible to compare the results of the UN forum poll to the official vote totals to address the question: "How representative is the UN forum of UN votes?"

Nations participating in the UN forum debates were asked to disclose their vote: yes, no, or abstain as part of an official survey. The raw UN forum poll results of this survey at the time of the closing of the vote are presented above. Another 51 UN forum votes were cast after the official voting on the UN resolution had ended, and were not included in the following analysis. On the UN forum, 123 nations voted for the resolution, 187 against, and 15 nations abstained. The abstentions are not included in calculating the percentage of votes.

The final overall UN ("official") vote was 49% of the votes cast being in favour, while the UN forum vote was 40% of the votes cast being in favour. After the closing of the vote, the additional votes cast tended to decrease the level of support for this resolution several more percentages. However, it is important to note that there is no way of identifying if some of these late coming votes were already accounted for in the overall UN vote or not.

The results of this survey can also be compared to similar results from the Mitigation of Large Reservoirs and The Microcredit Bazaar resolutions. All three surveys have shown that the UN forum has had less support for UN resolutions than the overall UN vote.

After Defeat

It should be noted that having the resolution defeated seemingly did nothing to abate Agnostic Deeishpeople's passion for the idea, and more than resubmission has been made. As yet, none has been successful in reaching quorum. To judge from the forum debates on these resubmissions, there continues to be support for the proposal from some, while others feel that the idea should be put to rest.

Additional Materials

• The Transgender Equality Act UN Floor Debate
• Resubmitted: The Transgender Equality Act Draft Proposal Discussions
• Draft proposal: The Transgender Equality and Protection Act Draft Proposal Discussions
• UN Timeline
• United Nations