- SACRAMENTO -- A controversial
bill dealing with transgender discrimination has been signed into law.
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- But that's not stopping critics from speaking out.
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- They say it challeges everything moral.
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- But others say it gives them hope.
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- Paige Oliver spent almost a year trying to find an apartment
in Sacramento. She wasn't shut out because of the red hot real estate market,
but because she's a post-operative transgender.
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- "People would take a step back and their jaws would
drop," she said.
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- Oliver has suffered that kind of discrimination most
of her life. She even took the first steps toward suicide.
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- That's why she's so thrilled Governor Davis signed AB
196, a bill banning housing and job discrimination against transgenders.
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- "It's like I now have civil rights and I never had
them before," Oliver said.
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- But pro-family speakers gathered at the State Capitol
Tuesday to protest Davis' signing of AB196. They say it declares war on
the average American and will tie the hands of businesses.
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- Former assembly member Larry Bowler said if a bible book
store refused somebody who comes dressed like a village idiot, that business
could be fined $150,000.
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- Paul Ramsey who is the chief counsel for California's
Department of Fair Employment and Housing says $150,000 is the cap. Administrative
fines are rare, and usually less than $10,000. He says gender identity
complaints make up less than one percent of the department's cases.
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- "This will really not alter the operations of the
department. Nor do I believe businesses in any fashion whether it large
or small," Ramsey said.
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- This is the first such bill to hit the governor's desk.
It was passed by the legislature earlier this year and will go into effect
in January.
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- http://fox40.trb.com/news/ktxl-080503transgender,0,1721043.story?coll=ktxl-news-1
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