(h) For an employer, licensing agency, employment agency or labor
organization to subject any individual to harassment because of an
individual's age, race, creed, color, national origin, citizenship or
immigration status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression,
military status, sex, disability, predisposing genetic characteristics,
familial status, marital status, status as a victim of domestic
violence, or because the individual has opposed any practices forbidden
under this article or because the individual has filed a complaint,
testified or assisted in any proceeding under this article, regardless
of whether such harassment would be considered severe or pervasive under
precedent applied to harassment claims. Such harassment is an unlawful
discriminatory practice when it subjects an individual to inferior
terms, conditions or privileges of employment because of the
individual's membership in one or more of these protected categories.
The fact that such individual did not make a complaint about the
harassment to such employer, licensing agency, employment agency or
labor organization shall not be determinative of whether such employer,
licensing agency, employment agency or labor organization shall be
liable. Nothing in this section shall imply that an employee must
demonstrate the existence of an individual to whom the employee's
treatment must be compared. It shall be an affirmative defense to
liability under this subdivision that the harassing conduct does not
rise above the level of what a reasonable victim of discrimination with
the same protected characteristic or characteristics would consider
petty slights or trivial inconveniences.