Transgender woman continues Buffalo City mission

When Hope Bender arrived at the Buffalo City mission, first came the “invasive questions” of whether the transgender woman was “legally a woman.”

Then came fear and sleepless nights for several weeks.

At one point, staff “hid” Bender in the locked chapel to protect themselves from men staying at the shelter, according to a lawsuit Bender recently filed in state Supreme Court.

Staff also asked Bender to wear baggy sweatpants “to hide his body and gender,” but other shelter residents could wear their own clothes, according to the lawsuit.

On July 4 weekend, 2021, staff at the shelter at 100 E. Tupper St. first contacted Cornerstone Manor, the Buffalo City Mission’s women and children’s shelter, about a mile away at 150 E . North St., to determine if Bender could be admitted there.

“Although Bender dressed and presented herself as a woman, putting her at increased safety risk if she were to be housed with men, Cornerstone fired Bender on the grounds that she was not “legally a woman” and instead ordered him to stay in City. Mission, a shelter for men only,” according to Bender’s lawsuit.

Bender, originally from Chemung County, stayed at the mission for three to four weeks, first sleeping on a cot in the shelter’s administrative office.

“She was then moved to a dormitory with four cisgender men, where she had difficulty sleeping due to her fear that other shelter residents would follow through on their threats to physically and/or sexually assault her,” according to the trial.

“The humiliation, shame, anxiety, nightmares and panic attacks” resulting from staying at the shelter led to emotional distress, and Bender is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, according to the lawsuit.

Buffalo City Mission is aware of the lawsuit and intends to defend itself in court, said Stephen A. Sharkey, a Bond, Schoeneck & King attorney representing the shelter.

“BCM is a faith-based, nonprofit organization that provides preventative, emergency and transitional housing programs to thousands of homeless and poor people each year,” Sharkey said. “BCM welcomed Ms. Bender during a busy July 4, 2021 weekend and provided her with a safe place to stay and other services when needed.

“We believe that many of the allegations contained in the complaint are factually inaccurate, and BCM categorically denies that there was any type of discrimination or wrongdoing in connection with BCM’s charitable actions toward it,” Sharkey said. “Indeed, BCM believes that all individuals deserve to be treated with compassion, grace, dignity, respect and care, regardless of race, color, ethnicity, age, sex, gender identity, their beliefs or religious affiliation. Due to the ongoing lawsuit, we cannot make additional comments at this time.

Over the past year, the Buffalo City Mission served 134,716 meals and provided 76,667 nights of lodging to people, according to its website.

Its stated mission is to “restore hope and dignity to the hurting and homeless through the transforming grace and mercy of Jesus Christ.”

Neither Sharkey nor Aubrey Calhoun, executive director and CEO of Buffalo City Mission, responded to questions from The News about whether the shelter had a policy, either in existence at the time of Bender’s stay or in place since then, guiding how shelter staff welcome transgender people. females and males.

The lawsuit accuses the Buffalo City Mission of violating New York State Human Rights Law by denying access to Cornerstone based on Bender’s identity as a transgender woman, as well as failing to reasonably accommodate Bender’s gender distress in its rules, policies, practices and services.

The lawsuit also seeks an injunction ordering Buffalo City Mission to “cure” its policies and practices.

Bender’s lawsuit was filed by attorneys Allegra L. Fishel and Vico D. Fortier of the Brooklyn-based Gender Equality Law Center and Phillips Lytle attorneys Craig A. Leslie and Adelyn G. Burns.

“In bringing this case on behalf of Hope, we are simply seeking for the Buffalo City Mission and Cornerstone Manor to create an environment that helps eliminate social stigmas and discrimination against transgender people, and to enact policies and procedures that will help provide a safe haven for LGBTQ+ people from the Buffalo Niagara area who come to Buffalo City Mission or Cornerstone Manor because they are homeless,” Bender’s attorneys said in a joint statement. .

“This case centers on the unfortunate circumstances in which respectful and appropriate policies and procedures were not in place to assist a transgender individual who came to Buffalo City Mission and Cornerstone Manor seeking safe shelter,” according to their statement.

Bender’s lawyers said New York law provides that transgender people cannot be discriminated against by public housing providers, such as Buffalo City Mission and Cornerstone Manor. The City of Buffalo code contains similar protections, and in fact, policies and procedures exist at other homeless shelters in Buffalo and elsewhere in New York State to ensure that homeless transgender people have a safe haven when they need it.

“In this case, Hope was not given safe shelter by Buffalo City Mission or Cornerstone Manor, and was instead asked inappropriate questions, subjected to fear of violence from “other shelter occupants and suffered physical assault from another shelter occupant because she is a transgender person,” Bender’s attorneys said. “Coming forward and putting herself in the spotlight was a difficult decision for Hope; however, she chose to do so to prevent others from going through this type of traumatic experience.”

Just months before Bender arrived at the Buffalo City Mission in 2021, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that transgender people would be protected from discrimination in federally funded homeless shelters .

Under the department’s Equal Access Rule, HUD-funded homeless shelters must place people matching their gender identity, and shelters must ensure that their policies do not segregate anyone based on their gender identity.

Government grants accounted for just $269,637 of the Buffalo City Mission’s total revenue of nearly $16 million in 2021, according to its tax filing, but the tax form does not specify which level of government provided the money .

In spring 2021, the Biden administration withdrew a proposal introduced under the Trump administration to limit HUD’s equal access rule and allow single-sex shelters to set their own policies on whether to admit people based on their gender or biological sex.

Today, a HUD-funded shelter for homeless women, with shared sleeping quarters and unlocked bathrooms, would violate the equal access rule if shelter staff refused to treat a transgender woman as a woman or a transgender woman and made statements intended to discredit the person’s gender identity, and also if, during the intake process, he refused to accommodate the transgender woman in a women’s shelter, but instead offered to place her in a men’s shelter.

Last June, the National Alliance to End Homelessness cited federal homelessness data showing that transgender, nonbinary, and gender-questioning people face significantly higher rates of homelessness. higher than people who identify with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Factors leading to homelessness include discriminatory policies that leave LGBTQ+ people excluded, unwanted or unsafe in many shelters, according to the organization.

While at the Buffalo City Mission, Bender heard daily physical and sexual threats from the men staying at the shelter, which resulted in intense surveillance by security personnel, according to Bender’s lawsuit.

Bender had to request permission to use a separate bathroom and shower in the administrative office “because she feared for her safety if she used the men’s restroom and shower,” according to the lawsuit.

Bender said the shelter’s male residents’ fear was not unfounded. While standing outside the shelter, a shelter resident approached and grabbed Bender’s arm, then pointed at a passerby and said, “That’s a real woman.” You’re just a man with a fake body,” according to the lawsuit.

The encounter caused considerable physical pain and was emotionally frightening and humiliating as a transgender woman, according to the lawsuit.

After Bender reported the encounter to Buffalo City Mission security, the other resident was allowed to return to the shelter the next day, according to the lawsuit. This made Bender “increasingly anxious and fearful for her safety,” according to the lawsuit.

Eventually, a shelter pastor helped Bender find a personal residence to move into.

“The pastor drove Bender to the new residence. Both agreed that it was not safe for Bender to remain at City Mission,” according to the lawsuit.