§ 2803-c-2. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, and people living
with HIV long-term care facility residents' bill of rights. 1.
Definitions. For the purposes of this section:

(a) "Gender identity or expression" shall have the same meaning as
defined by section two hundred ninety-two of the executive law.

(b) "Long-term care facilities" or "facilities" shall mean residential
health care facilities as defined in subdivision three of section
twenty-eight hundred one of this article, adult care facilities as
defined in subdivision twenty-one of section two of the social services
law, and assisted living residences, as defined in article forty-six-B
of this chapter, or any facilities which hold themselves out or
advertise themselves as providing assisted living services and which are
required to be licensed or certified under the social services law or
this chapter.

(c) "Long-term care facility staff" or "facility staff" shall mean all
individuals employed by or contracted directly with the facility.

(d) "Resident" shall mean a resident or patient of a long-term care
facility.

2. (a) Except as provided in subdivision three of this section, it
shall be unlawful for a long-term care facility or facility staff to
discriminate against any resident on the basis of such resident's actual
or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status:

(i) deny admission to a long-term care facility, transfer or refuse to
transfer a resident within a facility or to another facility, or
discharge or evict a resident from a facility;

(ii) deny a request by residents to share a room;

(iii) where rooms are assigned by gender, assigning, reassigning or
refusing to assign a room to a transgender resident other than in
accordance with the transgender resident's gender identity, unless at
the transgender resident's request;

(iv) prohibit a resident from using, or harass a resident who seeks to
use or does use, a restroom available to other persons of the same
gender identity, regardless of whether the resident has taken or is
taking hormones, has had transition-related surgery, or is making a
gender transition or appears to be gender-nonconforming. Harassment
includes, but is not limited to, requiring a resident to show identity
documents in order to gain entrance to a restroom available to other
persons of the same gender identity;

(v) willfully and repeatedly fail to use a resident's preferred name
or pronouns after being clearly informed of the preferred name or
pronouns, even if the resident is not present;

(vi) deny a resident the right to wear or be dressed in clothing,
accessories, or cosmetics that are permitted for any other resident;

(vii) restrict a resident's right to associate with other residents or
with visitors, including the right to consensual expression of intimacy
or sexual relations, unless the restriction is uniformly applied to all
residents in a nondiscriminatory manner; and

(viii) deny or restrict a resident from accessing appropriate medical
or nonmedical care, or provide medical or nonmedical care, that
unreasonably demeans the resident's dignity or causes avoidable
discomfort.

(b) The provisions of this subdivision shall not apply to the extent
that they are incompatible with any professionally reasonable clinical
judgment that is based on articulable facts of clinical significance.

3. Each facility shall post the following notice alongside its current
nondiscrimination policy in all places and on all materials where that
policy is posted: "(NAME OF FACILITY) DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE AND DOES NOT
PERMIT DISCRIMINATION, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, BULLYING, ABUSE,
HARASSMENT, OR DIFFERENTIAL TREATMENT ON THE BASIS OF ACTUAL OR
PERCEIVED SEXUAL ORIENTATION, GENDER IDENTITY OR EXPRESSION, OR HIV
STATUS, OR BASED ON ASSOCIATION WITH ANOTHER INDIVIDUAL ON ACCOUNT OF
THAT INDIVIDUAL'S ACTUAL OR PERCEIVED SEXUAL ORIENTATION, GENDER
IDENTITY OR EXPRESSION, OR HIV STATUS. YOU MAY FILE A COMPLAINT WITH THE
OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK STATE LONG-TERM CARE OMBUDSMAN PROGRAM (PROVIDE
CONTACT INFORMATION) IF YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED THIS KIND
OF DISCRIMINATION."

4. (a) A facility shall employ procedures for recordkeeping,
including, but not limited to, records generated at the time of
admission, that include the gender identity, correct name, as indicated
by the resident, and pronoun of each resident, as indicated by the
resident and such records shall be kept up to date.

(b) The state long-term care ombudsman program shall establish
policies and procedures for recording complaints filed from residents of
long-term care facilities pursuant to this section.

5. Long-term care facilities shall protect personally identifiable
information regarding residents' sexual orientation, whether a resident
is transgender, a resident's transition history, and HIV status from
unauthorized disclosure, as required by the federal Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, if applicable, and any other
applicable provision of federal or state law. A facility shall take any
steps reasonably necessary to minimize the likelihood of inadvertent or
incidental disclosure of that information to other residents, visitors,
or facility staff, except to the minimum extent necessary for facility
staff to perform their duties.

6. Long-term care facility staff not directly involved in providing
direct care to a resident, including, but not limited to, a transgender
or gender-nonconforming resident, shall not be present during physical
examination or the provision of personal care to such resident if such
resident is partially or fully unclothed without the express permission
of such resident, or such resident's legally authorized representative
or responsible party. A facility shall use doors, curtains, screens, or
other effective visual barriers to provide bodily privacy for all
residents, including, but not limited to, transgender or
gender-nonconforming residents, whenever they are partially or fully
unclothed. In addition, all residents, including, but not limited to,
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or gender-nonconforming residents,
shall be informed of and have the right to refuse to be examined,
observed, or treated by any facility staff when the primary purpose is
educational or informational rather than therapeutic, or for resident
appraisal or reappraisal, and that refusal shall not diminish the
resident's access to care for the primary purpose of diagnosis or
treatment.

7. (a) At least once every two years, a long-term care facility shall
ensure that every facility staff member who works directly with
residents receives training on cultural competency focusing on residents
who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and residents
living with HIV. Such training shall be developed by the commissioner,
in consultation with the director of the office for the aging and
entities with expertise in the legal and social challenges faced by
lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender older adults and people living
with HIV as they age and reside in long-term care facilities, and shall
include, but not be limited to, providing facility staff with the
knowledge and skills necessary to provide effective care, in compliance
with this section, for residents who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual
or transgender and residents living with HIV.

(b) Facility staff required to receive training under this subdivision
shall receive the training within six months of hire unless the person
provides proof of having received comparable training within the prior
two years that the facility determines complies with this subdivision.
If the facility accepts the person's proof of prior training, a record
of the content of the prior training sufficient to determine its
compliance with this subdivision shall be kept on site at the facility.

8. Nothing in this section should be construed to impede existing
programs, benefits, or protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual or
transgender residents or residents living with HIV at long-term care
facilities.