Massachusetts recently celebrated another victory for civil rights when Governor Patrick signed into law An Act Relative to Transgender Equal Rights. This legislation adds gender identity to the state’s existing anti-discrimination and hate crimes statutes.
The Commonwealth has a long and proud history of championing civil rights and human rights. In 1783, we were the first state to outlaw slavery and free all slaves. In 1850, the first National Women’s Rights Convention was held in Worcester and helped launch the women’s suffrage movement. In 2004, we became the first state to legally recognize same-sex marriage.
A transgender person is somebody whose gender identity (self-identification as male or female) is different from their assigned sex at birth. Transgender people grow up feeling like they were born in the wrong body — that the gender they feel on the inside doesn’t match their gender on the outside. To remedy this, a transgender person will transition to live as the gender they have always believed themselves to be. For example, Chaz Bono, the child of Sonny and Cher, was born female and has recently transitioned from female to male.
While the transgender population is small, with an estimated 33,000 people in Massachusetts, this community is widely misunderstood and often faces discrimination and humiliation. According to a recent survey in Massachusetts conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce, 76% of transgender adults have experienced harassment at work, 39% were denied employment due to their gender identity, and 31% of transgender youth in schools have experienced physical assault. Even more disturbing, a 2006 study revealed that 33% of transgender youth had attempted suicide.
Discrimination against transgender individuals also hurts our economy and costs taxpayers money. A recent report from the Williams Institute, a public policy think tank at the UCLA School of Law, demonstrates that employment discrimination against transgender people costs Massachusetts millions of dollars each year in forgone income tax revenue and increased healthcare costs and other public assistance.
Fifteen states have already passed laws to protect transgender people from discrimination and hate crimes, and four Massachusetts communities (Boston, Cambridge, Northampton and Amherst) have established city ordinances that prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or expression. Many businesses have also prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender identity in their human resource policies.
An Act Relative to Transgender Equal Rights adds gender identity to the existing categories in our anti-discrimination and hate crimes laws, which include race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, gender, and sexual orientation. The bill simply codifies in law the basic premise upon which our country was founded that all people deserve to be treated with fairness, dignity, and respect. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
Unfortunately, some opponents of the bill pursued a campaign of bigotry and misinformation, unfairly labeling the legislation as “the bathroom bill” and making many of the same false arguments — that the safety of women and children would be threatened — as they did in 1989 when the legislature last amended our anti-discrimination statute to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. As a result, in order to win sufficient support to pass the bill, protection against discrimination in public accommodations, a standard civil rights protection, was removed from the final bill.
Nevertheless, this legislation will still provide desperately needed protections for a long suffering community, and is a hard fought victory for civil rights and equality. I am proud that Massachusetts has once again affirmed the value and dignity of every human being.
I welcome your feedback on the transgender equal rights bill or any other issues. Share your thoughts at www.Facebook.com/RepJasonLewis or visit our website at www.RepJasonLewis.com. You can also reach me at 617 722-2017 or by email at Jason.Lewis@mahouse.gov.
Jason Lewis
State Representative
31st Middlesex District – Stoneham and Winchester