Civil Rights — New York City Human Rights Law — Sexual Harass-
ment — Effect of Local Civil Rights Restoration Act of 2005
2. Plaintiff, an employee of defendant New York City Housing Authority,
failed to state a sexual harassment claim under the State’s Human Rights
Law (Executive Law § 296 [1] [a]) based upon the finding that the alleged
sexual harassment was not ‘‘severe or pervasive’’ and thus not actionable, and
also failed to state a claim under the City’s Human Rights Law (HRL)
(Administrative Code of City of NY § 8-107 [1] [a]), even though the HRL, as
amended by the Local Civil Rights Restoration Act of 2005 (see Administrative
Code § 8-130) is required to be liberally construed independently from its
state and federal counterparts in order to accomplish the statute’s ‘‘uniquely
broad and remedial’’ purposes. In view of the statute’s construction provision,
the more restrictive ‘‘severe and pervasive’’ test otherwise applicable to state
and federal sexual harassment claims is no longer applicable to gender-based