NY firefighters receive training for transgender pronoun usage

Firefighters and paramedics in New York went through a short course on Tuesday, June 28 on the correct ways of addressing transgender persons.

The two-hour course, called Trans 101, is mandatory for all city employees. An initiative of the Commission on Human Rights, the course is meant to train city employees on the proper terminologies that they should use when interacting with transgender people.

Trans 101 also teaches the meaning of LGBTQI — which stands for "lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer or questioning, and intersex" â€” and the difference between "gender identity" (the gender a person identifies with) and "gender expression" (the gender the person conveys by how he or she looks).

"People need to learn to not be afraid to ask someone who is transitioning genders what their pronoun is," a spokesman for the Commission on Human Rights said, according to the New York Post.

Park employees are also going through the sensitivity training as preparation for the start of the swimming season. Their training is important because "they work in a place that involves changing clothes," the spokesman said.

Parks Department spokesman Sam Biederman said 65 park employees have already finished Trans 101, and 200 more will be trained in the following weeks. He said the sensitivity training gives park staff the right "tools" in dealing with everyone who uses the facilities.

In March, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio mandated that transgender persons be allowed to use the bathrooms of the gender they identify with, prompting the Commission on Human Rights to launch Trans 101.

"New York City is the birthplace of the fight for LGBT rights, and we continue to lead in that fight so every New Yorker can live with dignity," de Blasio said, according to Washington Times.

On Tuesday, de Blasio signed a law requiring all public single-occupant restrooms in the city to be gender neutral and to have the unisex sign.