For Immediate Release
October 19, 2020
Contacts:
Gregg Kelley, Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs
[email protected], 202-319-1070
Man contracts COVID 19 in crowded men’s shelter after being denied transfer to another facility that was available to non-transgender program participants
Washington, D.C. – Seth Canada has brought suit against the National United Methodist Church (NUMC) and Friendship Place, for their discriminatory treatment of him as a transgender man. Mr. Canada resided for months in a crowded men’s shelter where he suffered physical and emotional harm from the conditions he endured. When Mr. Canada began participating in Friendship Place’s AimHire program that offered housing and employment assistance, he asked to be moved to housing he was told was available for program participants at St. Luke’s Shelter (“St. Luke’s), a program partner of Friendship Place’s and small all-men’s shelter with individual rooms run by Defendant National United Methodist Church.
NUMC, citing that it had “never worked with someone who is transgender,” refused to communicate with Friendship Place about Mr. Canada’s placement and ultimately denied Mr. Canada housing at St. Luke’s, depriving him of an alternative to the crowded, unhealthy shelter conditions he sought to leave. Left in the crowded shelter, Mr. Canada contracted COVID-19.
Following NUMC’s refusal to house Mr. Canada, Friendship Place failed to place Mr. Canada in other comparable, cost-free housing, as it would normally do for other program participants. NUMC’s and Friendship Place’s actions violated Mr. Canada’s right to equal housing opportunity and constitute gender identity discrimination in violation of the District of Columbia Human Rights Act of 1977. Mr. Canada is represented by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.
“I qualified for the full range of resources, including housing, that these organizations provided to cisgender individuals. Dehumanization of a transgender person and discriminatory treatment perpetrated at the hands of those motivated by internalized or overt prejudice shouldn’t be left to slide by,” said Mr. Canada. “I speak out against the rights of the majority being asserted at the sacrifice of a gender identity minority, like myself, because such practice hinders achieving housing justice and equality for all.”
“Our transgender neighbors face oppressive discrimination in their daily lives that can have devastating, and sometimes deadly, consequences. Homelessness compounds this vulnerability. Mr. Canada was making remarkable efforts to change his circumstances for the better, but the National United Methodist Church’s inability to provide compassionate, and safe housing, has now compromised our client’s health and well-being,” said Catherine Cone, counsel at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil rights and Urban Affairs.
You can view a copy of the complaint here.
Mr. Canada has requested that we include the following guidance for reporting on transgender issues: https://www.nlgja.org/stylebook/transgender-reporting/
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