They are debating our rights again in Massachusetts. I hate when that happens. It always makes me feel so scummy.

The legislators are discussing H. 1577 and S. 735 which would increase the scope of the current anti-discrimination laws to protect transgender people in public places.

Currently it is illegal to refuse to hire someone who is transgender but totally legal to refuse to provide service to that same person.

Massachusetts lawmakers in 2011 passed a law adding transgender individuals to the list of protected classes from employment or housing discrimination, but stopped short of including public accommodations protections. Other states — 17 in total — have passed similar laws offering such expanded protections.

Speakers at Tuesday's hearing on the bills included Rep. Joe Kennedy III and AG Maura Healey.

We are known for pushing our country. So it means something when we don’t. Today, transgender individuals are protected against discrimination in public accommodations in 17 states, and the District of Columbia. That Massachusetts’ name is missing from that list does not go unnoticed.

--Rep. Kennedy

Andover Rep. Jim Lyons opposes the proposed changes. Typically, he seems to think the bills are only about bathrooms and that all transgender people are going to be using the women's facilities.

Some students may feel uncomfortable with a transgender student using the same-sex segregating restroom, locker room or changing facilities,” said Rep. Jim Lyons, an Andover Republican who opposes the bill. “The discomfort is not a reason to deny access to the transgender student. So my question is, let’s reverse it, and let’s talk about these young women who do feel uncomfortable with that. What protections are we going to put in place for them?

--Lyons

Look folks, just remember, we made some changes back a while ago, and after segregation, people were uncomfortable, sharing pools and sharing drinking fountains. Discomfort is not a reason to perpetuate discrimination, not in this state, not in this country.

We expect people to comport themselves with a certain decorum and modesty. My point to all of you is, don’t expect anything less of transgender people. They’re no different.

--Healey

Healey said even if a transgender person was discriminated from entering a government building such as the State House “the law isn’t going to be there to protect them.

Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, testifying on a panel of dozens of lawmakers in support of the bills, tried to turn the tables on Lyons by asking what specific behavior he and other opponents might be in fear of occurring. She said any violation of privacy in a locker room would be “enforced” regardless of whether it came from a transgender person or a straight or gay male or woman.

Chang-Diaz, who has sponsored one of the transgender rights bills, said that she finds it “grotesque and insulting” as a woman and a mother to hear opponents say they are trying to protect women and children.

Also speaking was trans student Brandon Adams, 14, from Christa McAuliffe Charter School in Framingham.

The school asked me to use restrooms that were segregated from the rest of my classmates. We know from history, that separate but equal rights are unconstitutional. Separate but equal makes me feel like a second-class citizen.

Adams spoke of being shoved into a wall and called a freak. A former friend, he said, wrote on social media that he dreamed of waking up with blood on his hands and Adams dead.

Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley said the proposal is a “matter of basic human dignity and respect,” and said transgender people are “routinely subjected to discrimination and even violence.”

It is not enough to light candles.

--Conley

Feeling the need to travel all the way from Washington to Boston in order to testify was Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council. He said he believed that acceptance of transgender people was a social problem that should not be approached through legislation.

He added that Adams had been “ill-served by the transgender movement, which has told him that his feelings trump his biology,” drawing an audible “wow” from one transgender advocate in the audience.

Extending protections to transgender people in places of accommodation does not present a public safety issue, nor have such protections been used as an excuse to engage in unlawful conduct.

--Healey

With Gov. Baker basically saying he opposes changing the current law, democrats are worried about collecting enough support to override a possible veto.