Editors’ Note: This article is subject to a Correction.
Three decades after advocates first began lobbying for it, New York’s state Legislature passed the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act, or SONDA, in 2002, which went into effect the following year. SONDA—which amended the New York Executive Law to add a new protected group—prohibits discrimination in employment, as well as housing, education and public services, on the basis of sexual orientation. The law defines sexual orientation as “heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality and asexuality, whether actual or perceived.” Unlike several recent New York City laws that broke new ground in covering hitherto unprotected employees, SONDA made New York the 13th state to prohibit anti-gay bias.
