A roof over your head
Submitted by Robyn on Sun, 09/27/2015 - 1:54pmWhen Jill Soloway accepted her Emmy for directing TransParent, she mentioned her transgender parent and said,
She could, tomorrow, go and try to find an apartment, and in 32 states it would be legal for the landlord to look her in the eye and say, ‘We don’t rent to trans people.’
For as long as Paola Ramirez has journeyed through her gender identity, she has been haunted by housing insecurity — first as a pained young boy living with her parents in Guatemala, then on her own as a gay man and, finally, as a transgender woman in New York.
Paola's studio apartment in Queens has a new owner, so her lease is up for renewal. But Paola is being told she cannot renew unless she presents some ID stating that her female name and gender.
I feel pressure.
--Ramirez