June 28, 2011
By: Chuck Colbert/TRT Reporter
Advocates of transgender equality stepped up pressure on the Legislature for passage of a bill that would add “gender identity and expression” to Massachusetts’ civil-rights laws, outlawing discrimination in employment, housing, education, credit, and access to public accommodations. The measure would also expand the state’s hate-crimes statutes to include transgender related offenses.
The latest push came on June 23, when a couple hundred activists gathered on Beacon Hill to lobby lawmakers directly for enactment of the bill, “An Act Relative to Transgender Equal Rights.”
The measure defines gender identity and expression as “gender-related identity, appearance, expression, or behavior of an individual, regardless of the individual’s assigned sex at birth.”
The lobbying day, sponsored by a broad coalition of LGBT groups and progressive ally organizations, came on the heels of a June 8 hearing before the Legislature’s Joint Committee on the Judiciary where transgender persons, friends, and family members testified on behalf of the bill, sometimes telling emotional stories of harassment and violence in daily life and discrimination on the job.
“You are going to talk to them about a subject most of you are experts on,” said state Representative Byron Rushing (Dem.-South End). “You have your script. The script has been written for a very long time.”
Rushing, a lead co-sponsor of the bill, made his remarks last Thursday afternoon at the Grand Staircase in the State House, shortly before transgender advocates – as constituents – visited individual lawmakers.
Other leading co-sponsors are Representative Carl Sciortino (Dem.-Medford) and state Senators Ben Downing (Dem.-Pittsfield) and Sonia Chang-Diaz (Dem.-Boston), all of whom were present for the lobbying effort.
Gunner Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, served as master of ceremony for a brief program when a handful of people spoke about the importance of speaking directly to legislators about the need for protections.
“There is nothing more powerful than constituents showing up unannounced or otherwise and saying they want to talk about an issue that is important to them,” said Senator Downing, explaining that personal story telling puts “a face on a piece of legislation.”
An immediate aim of the lobbying effort was to nudge lawmakers into action. As Scott told the gathering, “It’s time to move the bill out of committee and bring it to the floor for a vote.”
For several years now, a transgender civil-rights measure has remained bottlenecked in the joint Judiciary Committee, where only four members so far this year have indicated support for the bill by co-sponsoring it.
In addition, this year’s total number of sponsors is significantly lower than it was on Beacon Hill a year ago – down from 106 then, with slight majorities in both legislative bodies, now to only 52 sponsors in the House and 16 in the Senate, for an overall total of 68.
The Legislature has 140 representatives and 60 senators.
And yet activists and lawmakers close to the transgender bill say the measure may well be enacted this summer.
“I am getting more positive feelings and reactions recently” from legislators, said Arline Isaacson, chairwoman of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus.
“There is a change in the culture about how people view transgender people in this building,” she explained. “More transgender people are coming out, with more of them in the news.”
The media presence, Isaacson said, “normalizes” both transgender persons and the issue of discrimination against them.
Increasingly, “legislators realize it’s not as controversial as the they think,” she said.
After all, “Transgender people want to live their lives like anybody else and be treated equally,” Isaacson added.
A recent study, moreover, has documented a real need for protections. The National Transgender Discrimination Survey found that 76 percent of respondents from Massachusetts reported experiences of harassment, mistreatment or discrimination on the job.
Another study (April, 2011) from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law estimated the cost of discrimination against transgender residents of Massachusetts each year at more than $3 million for public health insurance coverage and more than $2 million in lost income-tax revenue.
Transgender equality has indeed gained traction, said Kara Suffredini, executive director of MassEquality, referring to Gov. Deval Patrick’s executive order, issued in February, prohibiting transgender discrimination in state employment and contracts.
Following the governor’s lead, the University of Massachusetts adopted transgender protections – the day after Patrick signed his order.
Transgender equality also enjoys support from key constitutional officers, including Attorney General Martha Coakley, Treasurer Steve Grossman, and Auditor Suzanne Bump.
And public opinion polling suggests wide support in Massachusetts for the proposed legislation, with 76 percent of voters saying they favor adding protections for transgender residents, according to findings by Lake Research Partners, which conducted the polling.
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All in all, “the momentum is good,” said Suffredini. “I am cautiously optimistic.”
Even among lawmakers, Representative Sciortino said he is hearing from colleagues: “It’s time. They have heard enough and learned enough. Transgender people are no longer a mystery.”
The transgender equal-rights measure, however, has its detractors, who have dubbed it a “bathroom bill,” playing up the specter of the bogeyman in the women’s rest room.
For example, on June 7, Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, told Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr on talk radio that the proposed law would give the state’s more than 10,000 registered sex offenders “license to use any bathroom they choose.”
But the bill in fact would not enable sex offenders to prey on women in rest rooms. “This bill protects transgender people from discrimination and violence. That’s the long and short of it,” said Gavi Wolfe, ACLU of Massachusetts legislative counsel.
“Non-discrimination laws don’t give safe harbor for criminal behavior. Not in the 15 other states with protections for trans folks, and not here in Massachusetts,” he added.
Sciortino views such bogeyman-in-the-bathroom scare tactics as “blatant lies.”
Downing believes honesty is paramount in transgender-rights advocacy.
“It’s a lot easier to believe myths and lies when you don’t have the truth to measure it against,” he said during State House remarks last week. “All of you are lobbying for the truth. So go to elected officials and tell personal stories, share your experience. The next time we gather together it will be to celebrate the signing of this bill.”
