The Vermont Human Rights Commission is looking for a new director to succeed Bor Yang, who has been hired by the Oregon Legislature as its new legislative equity officer.
Yang said a recruiting firm approached her about the Oregon job, which she saw as both an opportunity to fill an important need and to continue her civil rights work in a state she has loved as a visitor.
“The timing is right,” Yang, 45, of Woodstock said in an interview. “I think because of everything I’ve done at the Human Rights Commission, I feel really good and competent and prepared to meet that need.”
The Vermont commission appointed Yang as its director in November 2018. She was the first person of color to head the state government agency that investigates discrimination claims in housing, public accommodations and state employment. She’d joined the commission in 2015 after moving to Vermont from the Midwest.
As the commission’s new director, Yang said her priority would include addressing systemic racism and discrimination. Now, with a little over a month left in her position, Yang said she is proud of having worked with Vermont legislators, rights advocates and community members in strengthening the state’s laws against harassment and discrimination.
She cited the Legislature’s decision to eliminate the “severe and pervasive” standard to prove harassment related to housing and to extend the statute of limitations for anti-discrimination laws to six years.
She also brought up S.103, a bill that would ban pay discrimination on the basis of race, sexual orientation and gender identity, among others, and make it easier for workers to seek relief for harassment. The Legislature passed it during its veto session on Tuesday, and it’s now waiting for Gov. Phil Scott’s action.
Yang said these statutory changes are “going to transform the landscape of civil rights.”
As for work left undone, Yang said she’d wanted S.103 to also cover students, who she said face significant harassment in schools. “That’s left on the table, and I hope our lawmakers and our advocates will take that up.”
Yang said she also didn’t get a chance to participate in a Vermont-wide campaign to address racism, which could’ve been similar to state government efforts to battle substance use disorder and drunk driving.
Rep. Kevin “Coach” Christie, D-Hartford, chair of the state Human Rights Commission’s board, said the agency is sad to be losing Yang. He said that, during her tenure, the commission not only made strong strides in advocacy and support for all protected classes in Vermont but also increased the agency’s staffing, which strengthened its ability to carry out its mandate to enforce rights laws.
No matter where Yang goes, she believes she will be doing civil rights work for the rest of her career. Her zeal for the job, she said, springs from life experiences: as a refugee from the southeast Asian nation Laos who immigrated to the U.S. when she was 3, as a woman of color, and as a person with a physical disability from having contracted polio as a child.
“I belong in many protected classes,” she said, “and I think, honestly, it is the overlapping experiences that have really allowed me to stay passionate, stay motivated and fearless in this work.”
For people who regard the state rights commission as their ally in fighting discrimination and harassment, Yang had this parting message: “Speak the truth, no matter who’s in the room and what’s on the line.”
Yang’s last day at the commission is July 28. Christie, the commission chair, said the agency continues to search for a new director and hopes to have a seamless transition.
According to Oregon media outlets, the position of legislative equity officer for the state Senate and House had been vacant for nearly two years. The officer’s job is to address complaints of workplace harassment and retaliation in the state Capitol, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Before joining the Vermont rights commission in 2015, Yang worked as a lawyer representing poor clients and victims of domestic violence. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the timeline for when Yang moved to Vermont and joined the commission.
